Jamison leads Wizards in emotional home victory over Magic

Washington might be on the wrong side of .500, but they
have just as much heart and hustle as any team in the
league thanks to Antawn Jamison.  (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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Wizards' Record: 12-22 (11th in East)
Sunday's Game: Washington vs New Orleans
Game Time: 1:00 p.m. ET. on Comcast SportsNet
and 106.7 The Fan.  Nationally on NBALP.

Washington put the suspension of Gilbert Arenas and a lopsided road loss in Cleveland on the back burner last night as Antawn Jamison and the Wizards toppled last year's Eastern Conference Champions, the Orlando Magic, in an emotional 104-97 home victory.

Jamison, who led Washington with 28 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals in last night's win, began his 25th game of the season with an act no stat could measure.  In a heartfelt address to the fans, Jamison, the leader, gave an inspired pre-game speech in which he apologized on behalf of the Wizards organization for the Philadelphia finger-gun blunder, an unfortunate display of misjudgment which circulated the Internet faster than the Wizards' displacement of Gilbert Arenas from the Verizon Center.

With Jamison's speech set in motion, and Arenas nowhere near the building, Gil's locker completely cleared out and all of his Wizards apparel taken down from the Verizon Center store, last night was perhaps the first complete look at the Washington Wizards franchise without Agent Zero.  However, even though it's hard to sympathize with Arenas, one Wizard win at home is not enough for anyone to forget how hard it's going to be to replace a guy who gave Washington a team-leading 22.6 points and 7.2 assists per game.  Enter co-captain Caron Butler (23 points, 7 rebounds), joined by Mike Miller, who returned for Washington as a starter last night after sitting out since November 21st with a sore calf/shoulder, and the Wizards have a new trio for fans to start talking about.

Miller, in his return to the starting line-up, scored 6 points, dished 6 assists, and secured 6 rebounds.  Not exactly Arenas numbers, plus there's an eerie repetition of "six" going on, but those Friday the 8th "glue guy" stats speak volumes about the versatility Miller provides Washington at the shooting guard/small forward rotation.  And when you add an 18 points, 15 rebounds performance from Brendan Haywood at center, especially considering his match-up against Dwight Howard, as well as a 20 points performance by Randy Foye, who started last night at point guard for the Wizards, suddenly, Washington looks a lot less dire in the coming weeks.  Trade talk can't be waved aside just yet, four Wizards have been fined after the Philly incident, and team chemistry can't be decided in one night of homecourt basketball.  However, 9 of the 12 games left in the month will be played at home, and at the moment, at least, basketball in Washington looks a bit brighter this morning, even though there are plenty of dark days ahead until Arenas, as well as Javaris Crittenton, are dealt with by D.C. officials.

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