Serving Up a Nice Dish of Dagger! Wizards 100, Raptors 98

[Ed. Note: Many thanks to Prada for his excellent posts over the weekend.  It's been a bit of a crazy week for me, so his insight (which is always appreciated) was especially appreciated this weekend. -Jake]

Box Score
Game Flow
Post Recap
Times Recap
Truth About It
Mister Irrelevant
Wizards Examiner

Highest Plus/Minus: Brendan Haywood (+7)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila (-5)
Best Five Man Unit: Javaris Crittenton, Dominic McGuire, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood (+6 to start the 2nd half)
Worst Five Man Unit: Javaris Crittenton, Dominic McGuire, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood (-5 to start the 1st half)

Four Factors

Game Thread Comment of the Game: "What a game!  Caron’s dagger reminded me so much of the Feb 8th game against the Pacers. The Phone Booth wasn’t anywhere near capacity, but the place when bananas when Juice hit that shot. Moments of beauty in an otherwise depressing season." by WizChick

Before we get into the game notes, let's take a look at that buzzer beater from Gerald Butler one more time.  I finally found a YouTube with Buck's call, which makes the shot that much sweeter:

• Some of you out there probably wish that Caron had missed that shot so the Wizards could've gotten more ping-pong balls.  While I don't agree, I understand the sentiment, I really do.  With that said, I don't think any of you would have the guts to tell Caron to miss that shot at the buzzer.  If you do, you have far more courage than I do.
• In regards to whether or not Caron pushed off on that final shot, I couldn't really tell, but even if he did push off, it's not something that's going to get called in the closing minutes of a close game.  You could also say the same thing about Chris Bosh knocking Antawn Jamison out of the way to catch that cross-court pass from Juan Dixon.
• Speaking of Dixon, it was a bit odd to see him closing out the game considering that Crittenton had done a fairly nice job covering Jose Calderon for most of the night.  It ended up being okay because Dixon hit some clutch shots down the stretch, but it was a bit of surprising decision.
• You can't say enough Brendan Haywood's performance, especially in the fourth quarter (except for those two missed free throws).  For me, the most encouraging part of his performance wasn't that he was performing well in the clutch, it's that he was still able to perform well with fatigue.  So far during his return, Brendan has played well early but faded because he's still getting his wind back.  His ability to make big plays late shows me that he's close to being back at 100%.