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Jamison, Arenas lead balanced attack as Wizards top Kings

Dec 22, 2006 - 8:10 AM SACRAMENTO, California (Ticker) -- Antawn Jamison was unstoppable, but he had some help from his friends.

Jamison scored 17 of his 33 points in the decisive third quarter and added a season-high 13 rebounds as the Washington Wizards used a high-powered, balanced attack to post a 126-119 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

Gilbert Arenas had 30 points and Caron Butler collected 23 and 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who had six double-figure scorers. Brendan Haywood added 12 points and a season-high 14 rebounds as each Washington front-line starter recorded a double-double.

However, in the first half, the Wizards' offense was overshadowed by porous defense.

"We just couldn't stop anybody in the first half," Arenas said. "(Coaach Eddie Jordan) came in and was upset that we were just letting everybody drive on us, let everybody attack the rim.

"As guards, we had to step up, keep (Mike) Bibby and (John) Salmons out of the middle. I think we did a great job of that in the second half."

One of the highest scoring trios in the NBA, Jamison, Arenas and Butler combined for 37 of Washington's 44 points in the third quarter. The three scorers all fed off each other in the outburst.

"That's one thing about this offense is everyone gets equal opportunity," Jamison said. Trailing, 59-53, at halftime, the Wizards took a 97-83 advantage into the fourth.

"We were just disappointed with the way we were playing defense (in the first half)," Jamison said. "Guys were taking one dribble and going to the hole and getting offensive rebounds, so the emphasis was really to come out and play more aggressive defensively.

"Once we play better defense, it really makes it easier on the offensive end and that's pretty much what happened in the third quarter."

The trio combined to shoot 27-of-60 from the field, 10-of-19 from the arc and 22-of-27 from the line.

"We're unselfish. We don't care about numbers," Jamison said. "The only thing we really care about is winning basketball games and really contending for a championship."

The Wizards improved to 4-9 away from home after dropping their first eight road contests.

"We're playing a lot more with focus (on the road)," Jordan said. "We're not getting distracted by missed shots, the crowd, the officials. That was our problem earlier in the season. We tried to do it all ourselves, got distracted with officials. It was a little bit of that too much in the first part of the season."

Kevin Martin scored a career-high 40 points for Sacramento, which shot 49.5 percent (45-of-91).

Despite his stellar performance, Martin was focused on his team's struggles.

"We've just got to put four quarters together," Martin said. "We're not going to play perfect every quarter, but we've got to play the best we can. You never want to have and-1s, and we gave up seven of those in the third quarter."