Arenas Sprains Ankle, Leaves Wizards' Loss

Heat 101, Wizards 81

Washington Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan, happy with the return of high-scoring guard Larry Hughes after he missed 19 games with a fractured left wrist, joked before yesterday's game with the Miami Heat that possessors of good luck charms needed to perform all necessary rituals to cast good fortune on his injury-prone team.

His attempt at humor proved to be a jinx.

Minutes after tip-off at MCI Center, leading scorer Gilbert Arenas, in the midst of a month-long stretch of spectacular basketball, sprained his right ankle. He tried to play through the pain for a quarter or so, but, at less than full strength, he was counter-productive and left the game for good early in the third quarter.

Without their floor leader intact, the Wizards were out of sorts and red-hot Miami cruised to a 101-81 victory, stemming Washington's eighth attempt this season to win three games in a row.

The Heat (33-37), meantime, won for the eighth time in nine games to fortify its grip on an Eastern Conference playoff berth. Miami also dropped Washington to 1-19 against Atlantic Division opponents.

"Somehow I knew it, I knew it," said Arenas, who left the arena wearing a walking boot. "It was like you get in a rhythm and it was my turn to go out. It was my turn to go out . . . That's how it feels right now."

Arenas, who recorded his third triple-double of the season in a victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, played just 22 minutes and failed to score. In about the only bit of good news, X-rays to Arenas's ankle were negative for fractures.

Upon him leaving for good with 7 minutes 38 seconds left in the third quarter, Arenas hobbled to the bench and threw his right shoe on the court in disgust before limping to the locker room. It was his second trip to the training table, the first coming in the first quarter, when he had his ankle taped after initially hurting it by landing awkwardly. Arenas typically doesn't get his ankles taped before games.

"He couldn't be the Gilbert that he has been over the past two months," Jordan said. "We needed him out there to be himself because that's a good team playing on a high level."

Arenas is not expected to play Tuesday at Utah, the first of a five-game, Western Conference trip. Arenas, signed to a six-year, $64 million free agent contract last summer, missed 26 games earlier this season with a strained abdomen/groin.

Jordan expected the game to be disjointed because of the re-insertion of Hughes into the lineup after Washington won two games, impressively, with Mitchell Butler starting at shooting guard. Hughes missed his first eight shots and finished with eight points on 3-of-14 shooting.

"It's a process that we really don't want to go through," Hughes said. "Things just didn't click."

Rookie Steve Blake, who filled in for Arenas, scored a career-high 21 points and tied his previous high of five three-pointers to lead Washington (22-47). Center Etan Thomas grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds and scored 11 points, tying him in scoring with Jerry Stackhouse and Brendan Haywood.

Forward Kwame Brown, coming off back-to-back games in which he totaled 57 points and 30 rebounds, finished with just six points and seven rebounds in 32 minutes. Dwyane Wade (22 points) led six Heat players in double figures.

Hughes's return marked the first time since he got hurt that he, Arenas and Stackhouse, who missed 51 games recovering from preseason right knee surgery, played together. Arenas's short-lived stint brought the high-scoring trio's court time together to roughly 11 quarters.

The first prolonged stint with Hughes, Arenas and Stackhouse on the court yesterday came in the second quarter and things didn't go too well. Stackhouse scored nine points, but Arenas and Hughes missed all seven of their combined shots. The trio combined for five of Washington's nine turnovers in the period (21 overall) and the Wizards were outscored 32-15, leaving Miami, which shot 65 percent in the quarter, with a 49-40 halftime lead. The Heat made 68 percent of its shots in the third quarter to go into the fourth quarter ahead 83-60.