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Wizards 129, Raptors 109

It's hard to believe that only one game ago, your intrepet blogger was saying something like this.

But what's unbelievably inexcusable is that the Wizards were outrebounded 52-44 by one of the worst rebounding teams in the league.  You would think the loss of Brendan Haywood hurt here, but he's not a particularly good defensive rebounder.  The 17 offensive rebounds by the Warriors led to several second-chance points, and if the Wizards corraled even half of those boards, it likely would have been a comfortable victory.  It's things like these that are correctable problems, which is why the fact that the Wizards didn't correct it against a bad team particularly disconcerting.

The difference on the glass between Sunday and today was like night and day.  Chris Bosh had one rebound the entire game!  One rebound!  He had 15 the last time these two teams played.  That's the type of thing that has to happen more often, and it makes you wonder why you don't see it happen all the time.

But enough fretting.  This was a phenomenal performance by everyone.  It's only fitting that Gilbert Arenas officially broke out of his shooting slump against the team that began it.  Antawn Jamison also had a really good game, and his reinsertion into the lineup is making everyone else better.  Caron's still struggling with his shot, but he did grab 12 boards, indicating his back isn't much of a problem.  

The bench guys also played really well, particularly AD, who came up big today after struggling mightly last month.  AD was a +13 on the game today, and he was showing the type of aggression we really need to see out of him.  Hayes even had a pretty good game, and Songaila and Blatche provided some pretty good minutes.  If the consequence of struggling without Jamison and Caron is that the bench players were forced to take their lumps and adapt, then that's a good thing.  Bench play has actually been a plus in recent games, with guys like Roger Mason regularly getting positive +/- ratios, so this is nothing new.  While I feel bench play is a bit overrated, it's a very good sign that the Wizards' bench is better than it's ever been.

It is only one game, and Toronto is an awful road team that is struggling, but still, it's nice to see the Wizards finally blow someone out at home.  Now, if they can actually do the same thing to a similarly struggling Hawks team tomorrow, then we're all set.