Wizards 99, Knicks 98

Ohh it hurts. Well I guess it was time. The Knicks have had their share of dramatic wins...I suppose they were due for a dramatic loss. Oh well. The Knicks turned a 14 point deficit into a 1 point lead with 12 seconds remaining (on a Crawford leaner), but a defensive breakdown led Caron Butler to put in a game-winning dunk for the Wiz. QRich was fantastic with 35 points and 10 rebounds, while Caron Butler led Washington with 27 and 10. Game notes:

- Arenas had on some bright green Gil Zero's in the first half, but switched to blue ones after the break. He had a pretty boring game.

- Jared Jeffries heard some pretty vociferous boos from the Verizon Center crowd. Why? I don't remember the departure being messy, or him having any issues with teammates.

Gilbert welcomes Jared back to D.C. with a hearty dry hump.
- In the first quarter, Steph picked up a tech for arguing, and Isiah immediately went up to the ref and started mouthing off. He even seemed to implore the ref to T him up too. And he got it. It's a nice gesture to stick up for your guy, but enough is enough, man.

- David Lee had a sick bank shot tip-in at the end of the first half buzzer.

- Gus Johnson is hilarious. Q had a nice tip-in off a Curry miss, and Gus all but shit his pants, belting out a startling "BAWW!" that nearly broke my television. Gotta love that enthusiasm...

Easy there, buddy.
- Curry just looked tiiiired. He was playing most of the first half just like his early-season self...the same type of play that made me start calling him "Mittens". If he falls into a slump, I'm gonna be so sad.

- GJ pointed it out, but Caron Butler has an offensive game very similar to Carmelo Anthony's. He likes to square up, measure the shot, and then release it lightning-quick in the defender's face. He looked awesome.


- Crawford had one of the shittiest games I've ever seen. Like the last game, he hit some clutch shots, but he spent most of the game traveling and hanging up one-handed passes.

- The Wizards dancers are NAKED.

¡Dios mio!
- I doubt I'll be able to find a picture, but Kelvin Cato was sporting a full-on Andre 3000 getup, with this dark gray kinda patterned-looking suit and a vest or some shit. I only saw it briefly, but the damage was done.

- Marbury, as he's been doing, played fantastic off-the-ball D on Arenas. Everyone else kinda sucked.

Anyway, it was a painful loss for the Knicks but, now that I think about it, that might've been the first really heartbreaking loss of the season. And instead of chipping away at the big lead, and then falling back, they actually almost won the damn thing. So that's good. The Nets come across the river on Friday, and that game is enormously important. Curry's gotta bring the heat. See you tomorrow. Peace.