West's Buzzer-Beater Halts Wizards' Five-Game Streak

OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 13 -- It was a photograph that would have been easy to capture, a moment frozen in time, because for more than a few seconds, nobody would move. New Orleans Hornets forward David West kept his face scrunched up, mean-mugging his teammates with his hand arched high above his head. The Washington Wizards didn't budge either, motionless like statues, unwilling to accept that they had not only blown a 19-point second-half lead, but they allowed the Hornets to capture a 97-96 victory with less than one second remaining Monday night.

"Everyone was shocked. You were shocked. I was shocked. They were shocked when it went in," said Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, who poured in 43 points on the day he was named Eastern Conference player of the week. "It's hard to lose a game with 0.5 seconds."

After the harsh reality of West's 20-foot winning jumper sank in, the Wizards lowered their heads, slumped their shoulders and walked off the floor with looks of dejection. The Hornets giddily bounced around West, who completed their improbable comeback, winning their fourth in a row in the most unlikely fashion.

"It's emotionally draining," said Washington's Caron Butler, who batted the ball to Antawn Jamison before his last-second jumper gave the Wizards the lead. "We got to get over it. It's going to be hard though."

The Wizards (26-24) thought they had the game won when Jamison made an 18-foot jumper from the left corner with 0.5 of a second left. Jamison jogged down the court and lifted his index to his finger to hush the 18,678 fans at Ford Center. Jamison then ran to the Wizards' bench and bumped chests with forward Jared Jeffries, believing that his team had a dramatic victory, its sixth in a row.

All the Wizards needed was one stop. They didn't get it. Desmond Mason's inbounds pass went directly to West, who quickly launched the shot from the top of the key as Brendan Haywood lunged forward, right arm fully extended. It was West's third winning shot of the season. He also hit them against Milwaukee (with 0.1 of a second left) and Houston (with 1.2 seconds left). "I just turned, caught it, shot it and it went in," said West, who led the Hornets with 19 points and was able to accomplish a lot in such a short time.

Arenas has scored at least 40 points seven times this season, but the Wizards are just 3-4 in those games. Jamison added 20 points and 10 rebounds, his 20th double-double of the season, and Butler had 10 points for the Wizards, but it wasn't enough to counter a balanced attack from the Hornets (28-23), who had five players score in double figures.

The Hornets won for the third straight time without injured point guard Chris Paul, who, bruised ribs and all, ran onto the court, skipping around with glee after he watched his team rally for the fourth-largest comeback in Hornets franchise history.

After holding the Hornets to just 36 points in the first half, the Wizards gave up 35 points in the third period and were left backpedaling. Speedy Claxton and Kirk Snyder combined to outscore the Wizards 22-21 in the period. The Wizards led 59-46 with 7 minutes 32 seconds left in the period, when Snyder was called for a technical foul. Arenas gave the Wizards a 14-point lead when he hit the technical foul shot, but the Hornets were hit with a jolt of momentum from Snyder, who converted a difficult three-point play, flailing toward the basket as he hit a left-handed layup while getting fouled.

Arenas, who scored 13 points in the third period, gave the Wizards a 74-62 lead when he buried a three-pointer with 2:07 remaining, but the Hornets closed out the period on a 9-0 run. Claxton hit a short fadeaway jumper, then West completed a three-point play after an emphatic left-handed jam over Etan Thomas. Claxton ended the period with a fast-break layup to bring the Hornets within 74-71.

The Hornets tied the game at 76 when reserve Aaron Williams completed a three-point play, and they eventually took the lead -- their first since 2-0 -- when Williams hit a foul line jumper with 6:17 remaining.

"You knew they were going to make a run," Arenas said. "We didn't think it would be a 17-point run. But they did."

The Hornets eventually took a five-point lead after P.J. Brown (14 points) hit back-to-back jumpers, but the Wizards scored the next six points to take a brief lead on Jamison's jumper.

"It shouldn't have come to that point where we needed a basket to take the lead. We played [poorly] going down to the fourth quarter," Jamison said. "We can't lose games like that. One moment you go from finding a way to pull off a tough road game and just like that . . . he hit a tough shot. That's one of the things you can't control."

And leave you frozen.