November 4, 2006 - The
Washington Wizards won their home opener against the Boston Celtics, 124-117, behind the dominant scoring of front man Gilbert Arenas, who
scored a season high 44 points.
Opening the game with a moment of silence to honor
the late Red Auerbach (long-time coach of the Boston Celtics), Wizards fans
at the sold-out Verizon Center then cheered its home team on to a crucial victory.
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 The Wizards,
now 1-1, having lost previously to LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA’s season opener earlier in the week,
bounced back in grand style behind a concerted team effort from players Etan Thomas who, impressively started the game as Center, pulled down 6 rebounds and
one each in assists and blocked shots behind Antawn Jamison’s 29 points, and Caron Butler’s 20.
DC Urban Sports spoke to Caron before the game and asked
him what the Wizard’s strategy against the Celtics would be in light of the fact that the Celtics would probably be
a force to be reckoned with in honor of Red Auerbach.
“We will be a force to be reckoned with too”, replied Butler. “We’re just going to go
out and executive our offense”.
And execute,
they did.
The team’s
momentum worked effectively against the Celtics, who for the first two quarters, remained close in scoring. At the half, the Wizards led the Celtics 58-57 off of Caron’s foul shot.
Into
the third quarter the Wizards began pulling away, and were up by 10, with a score of 98-88.
Wally Szczerbiak, the Celtics’ star Guard,
continued to score on the front lines with his 33 points; as did Celtics' Guard, Paul Pierce, who added 23 points and 11 rebounds
for the team.
But
by the fourth quarter the Celtics began turning over the ball (11 times total), and the Wizards capitalized off of the Celtics'
mistakes.
In the end,
the Wizards had a ‘W’ and the fans went wild.
Coach
Eddie Jordan, speaking at the team’s after-game press conference, said "The game was a dog fight.” “We just made the right plays at the right time, but we have lots to work on”.
Gilbert
Arenas, who scored a mere 7 points against Cleveland, stated that in tonight’s game he “got his rhythm back”,
and “was back to his old self”.
When
asked about playing with the NBA’s new ball Gilbert says he likes playing
with the new ball. “It bounces easily going in the net.” “As long as we get a win, it doesn’t matter what kind of ball we use”.
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