Due to the unreasonable 6 p.m. start time, I missed most of Game Five last night, but I did get home in time to see Caron Butler play the hero, connecting on a tough drive with 3.9 seconds left to give the Wizards the win and bring their first round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers back to D.C. down 3-2. LeBron James attempted a contested lay-up at the buzzer that would have given the......

It's every NBA coach's nightmare: Under 20 seconds on the clock, LeBron James has the ball and he's staring down your defender. What do you do, hotshot? Double him and leave a teammate open for a jumper, or take your chances one-on-one with the best player in the NBA? Well, the Wizards went with option number two twice last night and came away with a 101-99 victory that had a raucous Verizon Center crowd......

I doubt anyone is at the "Gilbert Who?" stage yet, but anyone who's been watching the Washington Wizards play since Agent Zero went down would be hard pressed to deny that the team has been just plain fun to watch these last few weeks - perhaps because with the big gun out, they are playing like a team. Last night three players had double-doubles and a total of six players scored in double figures......

Ticket holders for Saturday's Wizards v. Raptors match up probably made their purchases with visions of Gilbert Arenas and Chris Bosh dancing in their head. With both stars injured for the game, instead it turned into the Roger Mason Jr. v. Jason Kapono show. It turns out this wasn't a bad thing at all. After not playing at all in Thursday's loss in Philadelphia, Mason Jr. came off the bench to score 15 big......

The worst case scenario for the Washington Wizards came to pass today. Gilbert Arenas had surgery earlier today to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee and will miss the next three months. Arenas sat out the Wizards last two games with soreness in the knee. Antonio Daniels will likely move into the starting lineup at the PG spot and, as a result, rookie Nick Young should move up in the rotation. He's......

Who says the Washington Wizards didn't improve over the offseason? Last night DCist made our first trip down to the Verizon Center this season and noticed plenty of changes; fancy new press credentials (now with marketing slogans!), shiny, new flat screen monitors in press row in section 104, that snazzy $50 million scoreboard that puts a whole new spin on the Kiss-Cam and a new red carpet themed video set to Kanye West's "Bigger,......

.354 from the field .203 from three point land 91.7 points per game No matter how you look at the numbers, it's clear the Washington Wizards struggled in the opening week of the NBA season, a fact reflected in their 0-3 record. The team looks disjointed on offense, taking bad shots and turning the ball over with impunity. And by giving up 105+ points per game - good for 26th in the league -......

We're a little short-staffed today, so if you've got any picks to add for this weekend, please leave them in the comments. FRIDAY >> This weekend the Uptown Theater is playing the final cut of everybody's favorite movie about replicants running amock, and young Darryl Hannah being super sci-fi hot, Blade Runner. >> If an apocalyptic future isn't exactly what you're in the mood for, try on Seattle's dream folk rockers, Band of Horses, for......

The recent Kobe for Gilbert trade rumors (shot down yesterday by Ernie Grunfeld — not that that means anything) should give you an indication that the Washington Wizards are at a crossroads season in regards to the franchise's future. Gilbert Arenas has gone on record saying he will opt out of his contract at the end of the season and Antawn Jamison is in the final year of his deal. Something's got to give......

There are plenty of NBA trade rumors floating around out there with the draft less than 30 hours away, and while the Wizards are keeping a relatively low profile as a team, that doesn't mean the players aren't keeping busy. Above is one of the new NBA '08 Live commercials that feature our still beloved Agent Zero with Maryland native and future NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Angry T has the other two if you're......

FRIDAY: >> Let it be known - any country with a holiday that translates as "party of music" (or "music party") is OK in our book. In celebration of the French holiday Fete de la Musique, as well as the summer solstice, French and American musicians will be performing at La Maison Francaise tonight. Local guitar and cello duo Janel and Anthony*** will play from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on the auditorium stage, but......

A scant 21 days remain until my favorite day of the entire year, the NBA draft. And while Cleveland and San Antonio start the NBA finals tonight (9:00 p.m. on ABC), the rest of the league, including the Washington Wizards, are firmly entrenched in the off season. What's in store for Team Zero? Let's take a look. The Wizards have roughly $38 million in guaranteed salaries committed to the core of the team next......

The Wizards and Capitals are on summer vacation. The only Redskins news prominently features Ron Mexico and is not related to sports at all (well, human sports anyway). Despite these non-developments, this weekend has some intriguing aspects regarding actual Washington sports. >> Boxing comes to the District as the brothers Peterson square off in co-featured bouts at the D.C. Armory. Lamont and Anthony Peterson are a combined 42-0 with 25 knockouts between them. Anthony will......

When the best sports news to come out of the weekend is that the Nationals managed to not get swept, the thing to do is move on as quickly as possible. We'll try and make as painless as possible for you. Redskins Grab Safety in First Round With the sixth overall pick in Saturday's NFL draft (and only pick in the first four rounds), the Redskins selected LaRon Landry, a hard-hitting safety from LSU. What's......

After getting handled by the Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday afternoon, the Wizards did their best to step up their game. It would be hard to argue that last night's showing was not a step up from Sunday's dreary performance. The Wizards increased their point total by 20, but the end result was the same: another L in the books as Cleveland rode a strong performance by Drew Gooden (of all people!) for a 109-102 victory. Gooden......

What was once an entertaining season for the Washington Wizards has quickly gone down the proverbial drain so fast most people are afraid to ask "What's next?" In the last 12 days, the team has lost Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas for the season, lost the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, lost the Southeast Division crown to the Miami Heat and also lost six in a row, with four of those......

I picked a hell of a night to stay home and do laundry. There I was, checking my RSS feed during a Friday Night Lights commercial break when Ivan Carter and the always informative Wizards Insider informed me that Gilbert Arenas arrived late for the afternoon shoot around and would not start against the suddenly hot Charlotte Bobkittens. "Not that big of a deal" I thought, but then I went on to Ivan's next......

A tumultuous weekend for the Washington Wizards took an unexpected turn for the worse on Sunday when All-Star Caron Butler fractured his right hand in a 121-107 win against the Milwaukee Bucks. Bulter was trying to contest a dunk by Ruben Patterson and hit his hand on the backboard. His availability for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs is very much in doubt at this point. "Caron is going to be......

The Washington Wizards found out last Friday that they'd be without Caron Butler for the next 10 or so days, not exactly the type of thing you want to hear with the Miami Heat breathing down their necks for the division lead. As we're sure you all remember, the team was 0-3 without Butler earlier in the season. Lucky for the Wizards then that the struggling New Orleans / Oklahoma City Hornets (aka the......

Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler returned from their injuries over the weekend and the nearly full strength Wizards won a pair of games, defeating Atlanta 93-92 on Friday and winning a wild one yesterday over Golden State 107-106. We'll start with the Golden State game, as it had one of the strangest endings I've ever seen in a basketball game. Down two with just over two seconds remaining, Gilbert Arenas drove to the hole......

The Miami Heat took control of a close game last night by repeatedly feeding Shaquille O'Neal in the post and The Diesel responded by scoring 10 of his season high 23 in the fourth quarter, leading the visiting Miami Heat past a depleted Washington Wizards team, 92-83. With Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison out with injuries, the Heat ran multiple defenders at Gilbert Arenas all night, holding him to 15 points on 3-15 shooting.......

Things were going according to plan for the Wizards last night when disaster struck. Almost. Comfortably up 17 points with just over eight minutes remaining against the visiting Sacramento Kings, the Wiz saw their lead diminish rapidly due to turnovers, sloppy play and a red hot Mike Bibby. Bibby, who many thought would be wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey before the end of the day, celebrated staying with his current club by hitting four......

Forget any anger and antipathy you may have felt towards David Stern and ABC for their draconian TV policy. Trust me, you should be happy this game was blacked out locally. If you didn't see Sunday's disappointing 94-73 Wizards loss to Portland, you didn't miss much. Despite his threats, Gilbert Arenas didn't score 50 points. Not even close. The Wizards as a team didn't break 50 until the fourth quarter. The team played lackadaisically......

In retrospect, it was inevitable that Saturday's Wizards / Lakers matchup would be a bit of a letdown when it was all said and done. The game had a media build up more reminiscent of the weekend's other big game with the Post going as far to call it "Star Wars II" and the most "highly anticipated regular season game since Michael Jordan made his home debut for the Wizards in November 2001." Chuck......

The Wizards 104-99 win over the Detroit Pistons last night at the Verizon Center evened the season series to 2-2, solidified D.C.'s grip on the top spot in the Eastern Conference, and has rendered it extremely probable that Eddie Jordan will coach the East's All-Star Team in Vegas. Good news all around then, except for the small matter of Antawn Jamison re-injuring the left knee he tweaked playing Boston on January 20th. Jamison suffered......

127-105. Yeah, it was that bad. Worse even. So much for all the talk about "swag" and "tough juice." Only time will tell if last night's shellacking at the hand of the Phoenix Suns will start the backlash on the hype and attention the Wizards have earned this year, but boy was it ugly. The crowd of 20,173, not to mention the huge media contingent, came to the Verizon Center last night be entertained......

After last Friday's win in Orlando and upcoming games this week against the Phoenix Suns and Detroit Pistons, Saturday night's game at the Verizon Center against the banged up Boston Celtics had all the characteristics of a trap game. The Celtics were without Paul Pierce, Wally Szczerbiak and Tony Allen, among others, and losers of seven of their last eight games. Should be easy pickings, right? Well, almost. The Wiz built up a big......

For the past two days the media have been wondering why no one double teams Gilbert Arenas when he has the ball. So the Knicks tried it last night to great effect. Agent Zero was held to 16 points on 4-14 shooting, but got the ball in the hands of his teammates consistently, which enabled the Wizards to take down the Knicks 99-98. Yes, it was another wild finish at the Verizon Center last......

Gilbert Arenas left the court at the Verizon Center yesterday as fans serenaded him with chants of "MVP! MVP!" after hitting yet another game winner at the buzzer. The Utah Jazz were Agent Zero's latest victim, falling 114-111 in an incredible Martin Luther King Day matinée. Arenas, who tied a Verizon Center record with 51 points, traded three pointers with Utah's Memet Okur down the stretch, but got the ball last and made Utah......

With all the attention Gilbert Arenas has garnered over the last month of the NBA season, it's easy to forget about his very capable teammates. Luckily for the Wiz, they were ready to pick up the slack last night when Gilbert had an "off" game. A look at the stat sheet might tell you the Bulls defense held Agent Zero to just 16 shots, but it wouldn't show Gilbert's determination to get his teammates......