Wizards Lose Jamison to Knee Sprain, Maintain Hold on First Place Defeating Detroit, 104-99

When you have things going in the right direction like the Washington Wizards do by commanding the lead in the Eastern Conference, it doesn’t matter who gets knocked out of the line-up, they wil just find a way to win games.That is exactly what they did tonight when Antawn Jamison went down with a knee sprain after colliding with Deshawn Stevenson with 6:29 remaining in the first period and they still pulled together as a team to hold off a very agreesive Pistons team.

Gilbert Arenas led the Wizards with 36 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds in Tuesday night’s 104-99 victory that kept the Wizards atop the Eastern Conference and gave the teams a 2-2 split in the season series, leveling the first tiebreaker should they finish the regular season with the same record. After tonight, the Wizards have defeated Detroit twice in five days, having won 99-96 on the road last week.

The victory tonight said alot about the team effort the Wizards possess. According to Wizards Head Coach Eddie Jordan, it was a real team effort tonight after Jamison left the game and you can do without a player from time to time and still win games.

“We’ve won some games even without Gilbert over the last year or two,” Jordan said. “Look at Cleveland tonight — they killed Golden State without LeBron (James), so things like that happen in the league. You can withstand it for a couple of games, but in the long run you eventually wear down.”

Jamison will not make the trip to Toronto, instead he will stay in Washington to have an MRI to see the extent of the injury and how many games he may miss as a result of the mishap tonight.

Chauncey Billups scored 24 points, leading the way for the Pistons. Tayshawn Prince had 19 points, and Rasheed Wallace and and Richard Hamilton finished with 15 apiece for the Pistons.

Detroit who’s only lead came tonight at 3-2 struggled to find a way to stop the combination Eddie Jordan put on the the floor. Detroit pulled within single digits in the fourth, but the Wizards leader fearful Agent Zero, scored 14 points in the final period, converted a three-point play with 1:44 to play to restore a 10-point lead.