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.

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.

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.

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.

To start this off, let’s go back to a quote from Gil yesterday:

“I’m an assassin. I get buckets. I haven’t played in a long time, but my shot is still there. When I come off the bench, there’s going to be some trouble.”

In his first stint off the bench, I’d say Gilbert was playing more like a sniper, and an accurate one at that, hitting long distance shots like this one:

In the second half, he cooled off quite a bit. It would’ve been nearly impossible to replicate his first half barrage, but it was clear that he tailed off near the end of the game. Trainers recently cleared him to play up to 30 minutes a game, but there’s a noted difference between being healthy enough to play 30 minutes a game, and being able to play 30 minutes effectively. You could see the same thing happening when he was being held to 25 minutes. In his first game back, he stared off great but he slowed down considerably by the end of the game. Then by his fourth game back against Philly, he was finishing stronger than he started in his 25 minutes.

Today was just another step in the recovery process. As each day comes he’s getting better and better. With his strong start we saw that he was capable of doing much of what we remember of the pre-injury Gil, as he continues to work his way back we’ll see more of what we remember most about him most–his strong finishes.

Stat Line: 20 points (7-14 from the field, 4-9 beyond the arc), 5 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers in 25:06 (+21).

Shoes: Gil II Zero Cust0mize.

If you missed it, here are Gilbert’s highlights from last night’s game against the Sixers:

For the first three quarters of the game, Gilbert was doing okay. He had a few points, a couple assists, and some rebounds. It was nothing spectacular, but it wasn’t abysmal either. As the Wizards entered the final 12 minutes, they were down by 6 and needed somebody to raise their game in final stanza.

I think we all know who answered the call. Just compare these two stat lines from the final quarter:

Gilbert’s performance was simply spectacular in the fourth quarter last night.  Even though we know it’s unrealistic to put up those kind of numbers every night, knowing that he can is going to make him and the rest of the Wizards that much more dangerous going into the playoffs.

Stat Line: 10 points (2-8 shooting, 1-4 beyond the arc), 1 assist, 2 rebounds, 0 steals, and 2 turnovers in 19:10 (-19).

Shoes: Gil II Zero TS Lightswitch Home (even though they were playing in Detroit).

The good news from last night is that Gilbert should be able to play again tonight, which is good both for Gilbert as he continues his recovery but of course it’s good for the Wizards since they’ll need all the players they can get for tonight’s key game against Philadelphia. A win tonight would just about wrap up the 5 seed and set up Wizards vs. Cavs: Round 3.

The bad news is that if the team plays like they did tonight, the third meeting is going to end up a lot like the first two.  Gilbert struggled, the rest of the team struggled, and G-Wiz couldn’t even board the plane.  It was just a bad night all around.  One of the good things about Gilbert is that you rarely see him have two bad games in a row, so expect to see a much better performance tonight back at the Verizon Center.