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Butler Scores 39, Wizards' Overtime Win Is 6th Straight
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It is no secret that the Wizards will rely heavily on Butler, Jamison, Daniels, Stevenson and Darius Songaila as well as third-year forward Andray Blatche in Arenas's absence, and all of those players carried big minutes Wednesday night.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Center Brendan Haywood was out after spraining his left ankle in Tuesday's win over Philadelphia but said he could play Friday night against Golden State.
"We said before the game that we felt good and we had to pull it together," said Butler, whose previous career high was 38. "The veteran guys had to be ready and we just all rallied together and did whatever we had to do to get the win."
The six-game winning streak is the team's longest since the 2004-05 season, but things will become more challenging from here.
The absences of Arenas and Haywood, as well as those of Etan Thomas and rookie Oleksiy Pecherov, left the Wizards with only nine healthy players Wednesday.
Haywood will be back and Pecherov could return to practice in two weeks, but the depleted roster could make it difficult to conduct regular practices.
Over the summer, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said the team would not exceed the luxury tax threshold ($67.9 million), and that is why the team entered the season with 13 players, two fewer than the league maximum.
While he did not rule out the possibility of adding a player, Grunfeld acknowledged the obvious when he said that the Wizards aren't going to easily fill the shoes of Arenas.
"We have to do it collectively; young players will get the opportunity to play," Grunfeld said. "It's just not possible to replace a guy like Gilbert. We have shown that we can be competitive and I think we will continue to do so. We'll explore all of our possibilities but we just aren't replacing Gilbert Arenas in the lineup."
