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Wizards get back to winning against 76ers

Feb 15, 2007 - 7:45 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards won't have to go into the All-Star break in a funk after all.

Arenas scored 22 points and the Wizards picked up a rare road win in Philadelphia with a 92-85 victory over the 76ers.

The Wizards absorbed a 94-73 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, and after the game Arenas questioned the game plan of coach Eddie Jordan. The coach was upset when he heard the complaining and the two met on Monday to air their differences.

That came on the heels of Washington suspending backup center Etan Thomas after he punched Brendan Haywood during practice last Friday.

The Wizards overcame all the drama thanks to a fourth-quarter run sparked not by Arenas, who is second in the NBA in scoring at 29.0 points per game, but by reserve Calvin Booth.

"It was a great win because it was on the road," Jordan said. "We wanted to play hard and we did that."

Booth finished with eight points and hit back-to-back jumpers to give Washington a 73-64 lead with 9:25 to play. The jumpers by the 6-11 center capped an 8-2 run to open the fourth and the Wizards never trailed again.

"Our second unit guys came in and made a big impact," Arenas said. "We kept going with our lead and played good defense."

Philadelphia trailed by as many as 12 in the fourth but pulled within 88-85 on a 3-pointer by Kyle Korver with 1:35 to play.

Rookie Rodney Carney missed a 3-pointer from the corner and Andre Iguodala missed a jumper in the lane before Caron Butler and Arenas both made a pair of free throws in the final 23 seconds to ice the game.

Korver scored 18 points off the bench and Iguodala had 14, 13 assists and eight rebounds for the 76ers, who committed 20 turnovers that led to 31 points for the Wizards.

"We just did not close it out," Korver said. "We had some turnovers and mistakes that killed us."

"Turnovers killed us for the most part," Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks said. "They scored 31 points off our turnovers and I think that was a big key to this game."

Booth's effort was part of a solid effort by Washington's role players to fill the void left by the absence of injured forward Antawn Jamison. Darius Songaila had 12 points off the bench and Andray Blatche responded to being pushed into a starting role with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

"Our bench did a great job filling in for Antawn tonight," Jordan said. "That's what we've been missing. Whether it was Andray, Calvin or Darius, those contributions were exactly what we've been needing."