Arenas pulled for two teams
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Oct. 4--Guard Gilbert Arenas spent most of last night's Washington Wizards scrimmage sitting on the white team's bench and then on the black team's bench. He walked from one to the other with a bag of ice wrapped around his left knee.
Center Brendan Haywood wasn't available, either, courtesy of a sprained right wrist. He was sent back to Washington and will miss at least another week of the preseason.
Arenas, the Wizards' $111 million all-star, will miss at least a month of the NBA season after undergoing surgery on his knee for the third time in the past 18 months.
With those two starters missing, others fighting for roles or roster spots got chances to stand out as Washington wrapped up its week-long training camp with a competitive affair before a crowd of about 1,500 at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center.
Wizards coach Eddie Jordan left impressed with the efforts of forward DerMarr Johnson, guard Dee Brown and forward Andray Blatche. Johnson, fighting for a roster spot, had 11 points. Brown had three points and two assists, and Blatche had 15 points and six rebounds.
"There were a lot of good performances," said Jordan, whose team opens the preseason Tuesday at Dallas. "Those guys really stood out."
TEAMING UP: The black team consisted of Antonio Daniels, Nick Young, all-star forwards Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, Etan Thomas, Linton Johnson, JaVale McGee and Juan Dixon. The white team had Brown, Blatche, Johnson, DeShawn Stevenson, Dominic McGuire, Darius Songaila, Taj McCullough and Oleksiy Pecherov.
Jordan broke the scrimmage into two 10-minute periods, followed by an eight-minute period. The black team won the first three periods 58-54. Butler, with several one-handed dunks, had 16 points. Young, who threw his jersey into the stands after the scrimmage, also had 16 points.
Jordan made the final period a situational deal, putting most of his regulars on the black team and asking them to come back from a six-point deficit with 5 1/2 minutes left. The reserves pulled away for a 13-point win.
"The second unit, I think we've really grown this offesason," said McGuire, who had eight points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals in the scrimmage. "They're still better than us.
"We just want to be a help to them this year, lighten up their minutes so they'll be strong at the end of the season and toward the playoffs."
KEEPING SCORE: Scrimmages usually aren't all that serious, but it was obvious neither team wanted to lose.
