Arenas Shut Down

Vowing to score 50 points against the team whose coach you don’t like, did Arenas really expect to actually put those kind of numbers up? Maybe next time, he should take a page out of Steve Nash’s book. After having their franchise record 15 game winning streak snapped against Washington, Steve Nash helped the Suns completely dominate the Wizards in their second meeting of the season by putting up 27 points and 14 assists in a 127-105 win where Phoenix put the exclamation mark in the first quarter taking a 41-20 lead. Tonight, it was all Portland, offensively and defensively, holding down the leagues third leading scorer to single digits and 20% shooting isn’t a simple task.

Gilbert Arenas vowed to score 50 points against Portland.

He wasn’t even close as the Washington Wizards fell to the Trail Blazers 94-73 on Sunday.

Arenas had made the promise in retaliation for Portland coach Nate McMillan’s involvement with Arenas being left off the U.S. national team last summer. The guard, who is averaging 29.4 points, shot 3-for-15 from the field, including 0-for-8 on 3-pointers. He finished with nine points.

“Thats like a dude saying he’s going to punch you in your face,” said Jarrett Jack, who guarded Arenas for most of the game. “With a guy like him, Kobe or LeBron, the easy way to guard him is don’t let him get the ball back when he passes it. We did a good job of trying to deny him when he was one pass away, and my big guys did a great job of helping me whenever he got by me.”

Jack and LaMarcus Aldridge scored 18 points each to lead Portland.

Another tie? Get what you really wanted.
The Trail Blazers are the only team that Arenas has not scored 30 points against during his six-year NBA career.

“We have a new philosphy now and that is focusing on defense,” said Arenas, who spent most of the game guarding Jack, who shot 5-for-8 from the field with five assists. “Right now we are still adjusting to that. At the end of the day, they scored a lot of easy baskets on us.” #