Gilbert Arenas 38 Points Derails Mavericks Quest for 13th Straight Victory

When the Wizards had the Mavericks against the wall with a 31 points lead in the third quarter it seemed physically impossible for them to come back and take their 13th straight victory from the Wizards, but then came the fourth quarter and a little dose of Dirk.

Nowitzki, who led Dallas with 27 points, capped a 19-6 run with a 3-pointer that pulled the Mavericks to within 102-95 with 1:07 remaining. Devin Harris scored nine points during the spree and finished with 14. Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George also scored 14 points for Dallas.

The Wizards again were led by another stellar performance from Gilbert Arenas, who led the Wizards with 38 points.

Arenas found his groove in the fourth quarter and drove to the basket with much consistancy over the game previously against Chicago when he could not find a way to get anything going inside out outside for that matter.

“It feels great,” Arenas said after scoring 38 points with eight assists during the Wizards’ 106-97 victory on Monday night. “It shows what we’re capable of doing if we come out and play hard. But we have to get a streak of our own pretty soon here if we want to be in that race.”

Nowitzki made the game close when he hit a a three-pointer, his team’s third straight from beyond the arc, with 1:07 remaining in the game to cut Washington’s lead to 102-95. But Antawn Jamison followed an Arenas miss with an offensive rebound and put-back with 47 seconds to play and the Wizards managed to hang on to improve to 7-10 this season and 7-2 at home.

For the second straight game, Wizards Head Coach Eddie Jordan had to be happy with the success of his starters, all of which hit double figures for the night.

“That is the result of our approach, our attitude, our willingness to share the basketball and us playing together,” Coach Eddie Jordan said. “That’s what we have to carry out on the road.”

The Wizards next chance to break out of the road slump comes Wednesday in New York as they face the 7-13 Knicks, who are just 2-7 at home.