Home sweet home

The Wizards finished a wild game yesterday night, May 4, in Chicago, scraping by on a buzzer-beating jumper by All-Star Gilbert Arenas.

The game should never have gotten so close, especially since the Wizards were leading by 22 with 3:26 left in the third quarter. The Wizards could not hold the lead against a scrappy Chicago team that never gave in, even though their home court advantage had been all but nullified until the last two minutes of the game.

The Wizards built an almost insurmountable behind the strong play of Larry Hughes (33 points, three steals and seven assists) and Brendan Haywood (17 points, seven rebounds and five blocks). But in the third and fourth quarter, the Bulls mounted a comeback, led by Sixth Man of the Year Ben Gordon and his 27 points and Tyson Chandler who knifed through the Wizards frontline for 22. Kirk Hinrich, who shot 6 for 7 from behind the arc, led all Bulls' starters with 23 points.

The real star of the game for the Bulls, however, was arguably Jannero Pargo who came off the bench with the Wizards leading 108-98 and immediately knocked down a three. After Arenas made one of two free throws, Pargo splashed another three, cutting the lead to 109-104. Finally, with the Bull's down 110-107, Hinrich missed a free throw and miraculously got his own rebound. Hinrich flipped the ball out to Pargo who put up an off-balance three that somehow swished through the net.

Arenas hadn't shot well from the floor the whole game as he only hit 5 for 14 from the field.

With 5.2 seconds left, however, and the game on the line, Arenas dribbled the ball down the court against Chicago guard Kirk Hinrich and drove left just past the free throw line. With half a second left, Arenas stopped and elevated for a fadeaway from 15 feet with both Hinrich and Chandler leaping in the air to contest the shot. Arenas released the ball with .3 seconds left on the clock and hit nothing but net, silencing the crowd at United Center and giving the Wizards a chance to enter round two of the playoffs with a win at the MCI Center on Friday.