It's not good enough anymore to put two or three good players on the floor and expect them to carry a team in the playoffs. Even the Los Angeles Lakers of Shaq and Kobe found that out the hard way a year ago. The Pistons last year, followed by the Suns and Nuggets and Bulls this season have led the league in something of a new direction, one that abandons the star system and calls on a handful of players to make heavy contributions.
The Wizards, it became clear in two losses in Chicago, needed more than their Big Three of Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes and Antawn Jamison to make this series competitive. So yesterday's surprise visit from Etan Thomas couldn't have come at a better time for Washington. His 20 points and nine rebounds, considering he averages only seven and five, were largely responsible for putting the Wizards over the hump in the their first playoff win of this series, their first at MCI Center and the franchise's first since May 4, 1988.
It must have pleased Wes Unseld and Earl Monroe to no end to see the franchise they made consistently formidable once upon a time finally win an NBA playoff game. All that transpired since the last playoff victory was a name change, an arena change, a uniform change, a dozen rebuilding plans, the deployment of players ranging from 5-foot-3 Muggsy Bogues to 7-7 Gheorghe Muresan and 17 years of frustration and despair. A kid born when the Bullets won a game against the Pistons in the first round 17 years ago could be a senior in high school now.
Ancient history aside, these Wizards are now involved in a legit playoff series. It's no reach to think they could win Game 4 to force at least a six-game series. But they have to play the rest of the series the way they played Game 3, involving more than the Big Three, and using their athleticism and superior size to keep the Bulls in foul trouble. Why the Wizards didn't play similarly in Games 1 and 2 in Chicago is something of a mystery, perhaps attributable to their neophyte status in the playoffs, but it's not too late as long as they stay with what led them to yesterday's 117-99 victory in Game 3.
Arenas led the team, as usual, with 32 points. And Hughes and Jamison scored 21 apiece. But they got a ton of help from not only Thomas, but Michael Ruffin, who gave his team 21 minutes and nine points; and an appreciative and loud 20,173 at MCI that acted as if they were veterans when it comes to playoff basketball.
Thomas said afterward that "it only makes sense" that the Bulls would overload their defense to deal with Arenas, Hughes and Jamison. But, he added, it makes similar sense that the interior players had to increase their production and raise their energy level to break through against the Bulls' defense. "That's our job, to support them," Thomas said. "We can't rely on them totally . . . for everything."
So they didn't. Thomas scored 16 points in the first half, all in a span of six minutes, primarily by hitting the paint and either throwing down a pass or putting back an offensive rebound. Ruffin and Thomas played more than a few minutes together in the second half, when the Wizards increased their defensive intensity. And Brendan Haywood made the most of his 21 minutes, scoring eight points to go with nine rebounds. Together, the Wizards' three strongest interior players scored 37 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. They combined to make 12 of 14 shots. Thomas hit 8 of 9.
Okay, no threesome outside of Bird-McHale-Parish could be expected to be that near-perfect again. But as Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan said, it was as much the energy and effort put forth by Haywood, Thomas and Ruffin making a difference as the points and rebounds.
Jordan said he didn't hit the team with any speeches before Game 3. "I tried that before Game 1 and it lasted about a quarter," he joked. Instead, he told them to enjoy participating in a playoff game at home, to enjoy the home crowd and try to forget about any perceived pressures to win. Did he mention a 3-0 Chicago lead would amount to elimination? "No, no, no, no," Jordan said. "Nothing like that. Didn't mention it at all."
The Wizards started the game in a familiar pattern, one that couldn't be the most comfortable for Jordan to watch. For the third straight game they surged at the start, grabbed the lead, looked like the superior team athletically and technically, and fell into an ill-advised jump-shooting trap. Games 1 and 2 in Chicago were eerily similar in the first half.
A basket by Arenas put the Wizards ahead, 35-23, but the team couldn't -- or didn't -- continue to play the way they did to build the lead. After playing some uncharacteristically nasty defense to get ahead and after driving hard to the basket and crashing the glass for rebounds, the Wizards suddenly let the Bulls run free, and they started throwing up 20 footers.
The result was that the Bulls climbed back into the game and actually tied it, 49-49, on Tyson Chandler's spin move into the lane a couple of minutes before intermission. The Bulls, even though the Wizards outplayed them, even took the lead twice before halftime.
But as Scott Skiles said of his team, "Even though we had it pretty close at the half, they pretty much outplayed us beginning to end."
And in doing so, the Wizards surely must have discovered Arenas and Hughes are quicker than anybody in the Bulls' backcourt, and the Bulls almost have to foul them if they drive to the basket instead of settling for long jumpers. Also, it's necessary to point out that the Wizards, after allowing the Bulls to shoot 48.8 percent in Game 2 in Chicago, held the Bulls to 39.3 percent shooting in Game 3. That, along with Washington winning the rebounding battle and getting to more loose balls, had Skiles in less than the greatest mood.
Asked if he was disappointed that his team, whose trademark is its hustle, appeared to be outworked, Skiles said, "Yes." His only elaboration is that being out-hustled has "been fairly rare, that's for sure."
It's nearly as rare to see the Wizards have more than three players contribute so heavily. Yes, their identity is tied up in Arenas, Hughes and Jamison, who are clearly the team's three best players. But to even this series, and surely to win it, Washington is going to have to get additional effort and production that might not have been necessary to win games in the regular season.
