Playing in front of a national TV audience on ESPN, Gilbert Arenas put in a strong case for All-Star game votes by scoring a Gilbert Arenas a season high 45 points and dishing out 13 assists in a much needed Wizards victory.

Gilbert Arenas had 15 points and 10 assists in 30 minutes in his first game since April 27, 2008 but wasn’t able to lead the Wizards pull out the victory against the Detroit Pistons. Nonetheless, it was good to see Gilbert back!

Stat Line: 10 points (3-8 shooting, 1-4 from beyond the arc), 2 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 4 turnovers in 32:23 (-4).

Before we get into the recap, let’s hear a few words from my good friend Kay.

Kay: Well, it was a tough loss yesterday for sure. Gilbert’s still clearly hurting from his surgery and it’s really affected him on the court, but I think I have something that might help explain Gilbert’s off-performance (outside of the game-tying shot, of course). Just take a look at this…

Kay: Heck of a game yesterday. Go Wizards!

Thanks Kay. Now where was I? Ah yes, the recap.

Playoff Game 4: Just Wait Until He’s Healthy

Stat Line: 30 points (10-16 from the field, 6-7 for three), 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 0 turnovers in 27:47 (+15).

Quite simply, that was the best performance from Gil since his return from injury. If only the training staff didn’t have to put a strict limit on his playing time, he might have very well won the game by himself yesterday. Alas, it wasn’t to be and now with the Wizards down 3-1, it doesn’t look good, but if we see anything like we saw yesterday, you’d have to imagine that we still have a great shot in this series.

Stat Line: 2 points, 3 assists, 1 rebound, 0 steals, and 1 turnover in 10:02 (+3).

As you probably heard right before the game last night, Gil was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time since coming back from injury. For his 10 minutes of play, his stat line isn’t terrible, but it isn’t vintage Gil either. As Ivan Carter reported at halftime, Gilbert was sat down for the rest of the game because of bone bruise in his knee, which will leave him day to day.

Thankfully, he didn’t injure himself jumping off the scorer’s table. Eddie Jordan went on to elaborate after the game that the bruise wasn’t the result of any specific incident:

“It just starts hurting. He didn’t re-injure it. It just aches, it’s sore. It may be a pinched nerve. We talked about that a few minutes ago. It could be a nerve pinching back there in his leg, and if it is, it should be very manageable.”

At least this seems much better than the start of the season when Gilbert’s knee was swelling for no apparent reason before finally leading to another surgery. This doesn’t look like anything to worry about too much. I’m pretty sure we’ll see him back on Sunday for Game 4.

Stat Line: 7 points (2-10 shooting, 0-2 from beyond the arc), 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 0 steals, and 3 turnovers in 23:52 (-22).

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, this picture speaks volumes:

Bad knee + Bad shooting wrist = Bad, bad, bad. Thankfully, the next game isn’t until Thursday which gives Gilbert time to heal up and gives all the Wizards time to regroup.