Daniels Suddenly Looks Like the Smart Money

There was a time this season when it appeared that the Washington Wizards' decision to sign guard Antonio Daniels to a five-year, $30 million contract was a serious miscalculation. Daniels, who celebrated his 31st birthday yesterday, struggled to carve out a role for himself with the Wizards after being a key piece to Seattle's surprising 52-win season last year.

However, Daniels has settled in as the first guard off the bench and a key fourth-quarter contributor. His performance during yesterday's 113-104 victory over the Bulls made Ernie Grunfeld, the Wizards' president of basketball operations, look wise for outbidding several teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, for Daniels's services last offseason.

Daniels scored a season-high 21 points, shot 7 of 9 with three assists while at different points in the game playing solid defense on Chicago's trio of talented guards, Chris Hinrich, Chris Duhon and Ben Gordon.

Daniels, who is averaging 8.3 points and 3.2 assists in 26.7 minutes, has reached double figures in scoring in 11 of the last 13 games. Though he makes his living attacking the basket off the dribble, Daniels has also been a more accurate jump shooter in recent weeks.

"It was just a matter of time," said Daniels, who has made 47 percent of his shots in 10 March games. "I've been working on it and I've been trying to do the same thing I've done my whole career and throughout the course of the season. With the right attitude and aggressiveness, everything will work its way out."