Shoulder Soreness Hampers Arenas

Guard Hopes Rest Will Help Shooting

Looking a little like a baseball pitcher who had just worked too many long innings, Gilbert Arenas flexed, shook his right arm -- the one that has been responsible for a 30-point scoring average and helped the Washington Wizards charge into contention in the Eastern Conference -- and then grimaced.

"The shoulder is just hurting me a lot the last three games," Arenas said late Saturday night, after making 6 of 20 shots and scoring 17 points in a 93-80 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. "I don't know. When I go to shoot, everything feels like it's coming up short."

Arenas hurt the shoulder in a collision with Ruben Patterson during a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 30 and said he aggravated it during Friday's loss to the Hornets in Oklahoma City.

Arenas attributes his recent shooting woes to the sore shoulder and said following Saturday's loss -- Washington's fourth straight on the road -- that he needed a day or two of rest in order to feel like himself.

The Wizards (20-16) will play the Utah Jazz, loser of three consecutive games, in a rare 1 p.m. tip-off today at Verizon Center.

After tearing up the league in December and opening January with big games against the Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers, Arenas has been in a shooting slump. He has made 23 of his past 74 shots, including eight of his last 29 three-point attempts and has primarily relied on free throws to get his points.

Even those were missing Saturday night when Arenas was limited to five free throw attempts -- he made four -- before taking a seat late in the fourth quarter with the game already decided.

The most telling sign that something was off with Arenas came at the end of the first half. With the clock ticking down below 10 seconds, Arenas calmly dribbled the ball upcourt where he was met by Spurs defensive stopper Bruce Bowen. Arenas shook Bowen with a wicked crossover dribble and with the crowd still ooohing and ahhing over the move, pulled up for an 18-foot jump shot.

The shot was on line but missed as the buzzer sounded and San Antonio went into the locker room with a six-point lead. Arenas has been accurate on such shots all season with the notable example being his game-winning three-pointer from 32 feet out against the Bucks on Jan. 3.

Because the Wizards go as Arenas goes -- the team is 1-11 when he scores 25 or fewer points -- his recent slump has coincided with a mini-slump by his team.

After averaging 115.8 points in the previous 18 games, the Wizards were held below 100 in losses to the Hornets and Spurs and looked little the cohesive, confident squad that beat the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers.

On Saturday night, a reliance on jump shots and a lack of ball movement doomed the Wizards against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.

With Tim Duncan protecting the lane and defenders such as Bowen, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili closing out on shooters and funneling their men into the paint, San Antonio is one of the most fundamentally sound defensive units in the league, which is why it is allowing less than 91 points per game.

However, Arenas and the other Wizards never appeared to challenge the Spurs with drives to the basket. On a night when their jump shots weren't falling and when Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison totaled 38 points -- well below their average of 70.3 -- that lack of aggression was a recipe for failure.

"All the tapes I was watching him, he was taking jump shots, like, by himself," Parker said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of controlling him, but it's just one game. We'll see him again in Washington."

The Wizards and Spurs will meet again Feb. 7 at Verizon Center. Before then, Arenas and his teammates have to find a way to recapture the feeling they had while winning 14 of 18 games during a recent stretch.

For the first time since Nov. 28, the Wizards will take the floor this afternoon having lost consecutive games. The good news is that they've won seven straight at Verizon Center, where they are 14-3 overall.

"We've been on slides before and it always starts with one loss," said Coach Eddie Jordan, whose frustration showed when he was ejected from Saturday's loss during the third quarter after coming onto the court to protest an official's non-call on Arenas. "You just never know. You have to catch yourself as much as you can, stay composed and come out and execute the things you've been working on the last few months."