Dixon, Jeffries Shoot to the Forefront

On a night when point guard Gilbert Arenas took his sweet time introducing himself on the offensive end of the court, the Washington Wizards jumped out to a quick lead on the Chicago Bulls and held on for a series-tying 106-99 Game 4 victory because two players who had been all but invisible during the first three games made major impacts.

Reserve guard Juan Dixon snapped out of a shooting slump and scored a career-high 35 points. Small forward Jared Jeffries got things rolling early for the Wizards by scoring six of his eight points and pulling down four of his eight rebounds in the first quarter. The Dixon and Jeffries contributions were interesting because it was the Bulls who benefited from strong performances by the likes of Andres Nocioni, Jannero Pargo and Adrian Griffin while taking a 2-0 series lead at Chicago's United Center.

The Wizards came back to Washington knowing that it would be foolish to rely totally on the Big Three of Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Larry Hughes. On this night, Dixon and Jeffries were key reasons why the Wizards did not need monster games from Arenas, who finished with 23 points, Jamison, who scored 18, or Hughes, who got into foul trouble and scored a series-low 10.

Getting off to a fast start -- the Wizards led 29-15 at the end of the first quarter -- allowed Arenas to create opportunities for others instead of dominating the basketball and his team's shots in the early going. Arenas, who attempted 48 shots in the first three games, didn't take his first shot until 5 minutes 26 seconds remained in the first half.

"We don't have any problem with that," Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan said. "His growth has come full circle. He was a scoring guard and a shoot-first, pass-second kind of guard last year. We talked to him about that and said we need to turn this around. When he is running the show, he is a true point guard at the moment."

Jeffries, who scored eight points and hardly made an impact during the first three games of the series, was one of the first Wizards to establish the pace of Game 4. Jeffries aggressively stayed with Nocioni on defense and gave the Wizards a 10-2 lead when he threw down a dunk with nine minutes remaining in the first quarter.

"He's playing within his role," Jordan said. "Coming down the last month of the season we felt that Jared was getting outside of his role. We talked to him and told him that he is best when he's playing his role."

Unlike Jeffries, who is encouraged to look for shots only in transition, off offensive rebounds and on the back side of the half-court offensive sets, Dixon has the green light to be aggressive with the ball in his hands. However, that aggression worked against the Wizards in the first three games. Dixon made only 8 of 34 shots and was taken advantage of on the defensive end.

While even his open jump shots missed, Dixon's man seemingly swished everything when he was a split-second late rotating over on defense. After Saturday's Game 3 victory in which he made 1 of 10 shots, Dixon felt it necessary to seek out Jordan in the MCI Center parking lot and urge his coach to stay with him.

Instead of giving Dixon's minutes to veteran Anthony Peeler or even Dixon's former Maryland teammate, Steve Blake, Jordan stuck with the third-year guard and then gladly watched it pay off.

Dixon made 11 of 15 shots from the field, all 10 of his free throws and scored 35 points in 31 minutes.

The MCI Center crowd, which was spotted with plenty of Dixon jerseys, erupted each time the ball left Dixon's right hand. By the time he dribbled along the baseline and knocked down a floater over Pargo to give the Wizards a 75-53 lead with 2:41 left in the third quarter, Dixon had to feel like he was back in College Park making big shot after big shot for the Maryland Terrapins.

"There are, what, 450 players in the NBA, and they are the 450 best players in the world," Bulls Coach Scott Skiles said. "So they're all capable of having a big night. I feel like we let him get going. We got caught on some screens and he was able to pop open. When you get a rhythm like that, the hoop opens up for you and everything starts going in."