In what was evidently a strange convergence of energy from the sports gods, four injured All-Stars returned to their respective teams Wednesday with just two weeks left before the the NBA playoffs begin.

Isn’t this why we love professional sports?

• A funny thing happened just hours after Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said it looked like it would require more time before Dirk Nowitzki would return from the left ankle and knee injury he suffered on March 23 in a loss to the Spurs … he started. Nowitzki scored 18 points in 27 minutes during the huge 111-86 win over the Warriors, moving the Mavs alone into seventh place in the West. The Mavs were 2-3 since the injury, but now have a two-game lead and the tie-breaker over the ninth-place Warriors and a one-game lead over the eighth-place Nuggets, who also have the tie-breaker with the sliding W’s.

• Nobody has known what to think about Gilbert Arenas, who has been talking for six weeks that he would return from November surgery on his left knee, but Wednesday night was it for Agent Zero. He came off the bench to score 17 points in 19 minutes for the Wizards in a bizarre, 110-109 loss to the Bucks during which teammates Antawn Jamison (sprained right shoulder) and DeShaun Stevenson (sprained right ankle) were helped off the floor after a scramble for the ball with 6.3 seconds left. The result dripped with irony, not only because it was Arenas’ return, but both Caron Butler (strained hamstring) and Antonio Daniels (sprained wrist) returned after missing a game with injuries as well … so much for the full compliment of players that coach Eddie Jordan was expecting.

• Everything returned to normal for the Lakers when Pau Gasol made his first appearance since suffering an ankle sprain on March 14. He played 32 minutes, contributing 10 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds in the 104-91 win over the Blazers – a huge lift considering the Lakers were 5-5 since he got hurt. They remain just 1.5 games out of the top seed in the West, and have the third seed with first place in the Pacific Division, a game ahead of the Suns.

• And in perhaps the biggest surprise of all, Clippers forward Elton Brand entered the game midway through the first quarter against Seattle, playing for the first time since suffering a torn Achilles tendon in the summer. Predictably rusty, Brand scored 13 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter as the Clippers came from behind to run away from the Sonics, 102-84, to end an eight-game road losing streak.

Brand’s move was typical of a quality guy not only showing that he wanted to play when he was ready, but also that he’s worth every penny to someone as a player and a leader if he does opt out of his contract this summer.

But the biggest boon certainly is the return of Nowitzki and what this game did for the Mavs and Warriors in divergent circumstances. Left for dead by so many critics, this was the second win in a row for the Mavs, and certainly the commentary by Johnson earlier in the day about Nowitzki’s status came at the expense of his mentor in gamesmanship – Warriors coach Don Nelson. The Mavs, who still have to travel this weekend to play the Suns and Lakers, suddenly are loaded with momentum after beating their first over-.500 team since acquiring Jason Kidd 22 games ago. They were 0-10 before Wednesday night, but Nowitzki’s return further girded this group – as Kidd had 17 assists compared to just 10 for the Warriors as a team in the game.

That statistic was reflective of how the Warriors have come apart of late. They’ve lost three of their last four and five of eight to slide out of what looked like a strong seventh place. Not only do they lose the tie-breakers to the Mavs and Nuggets, but they’ve lost two in a row for the first time since the Jan. 2-4, and only the second time since an 0-6 start with captain Stephen Jackson suspended. Furthermore, after 37 consecutives games of 100 points or more as the highest scoring team in the league, they had just 86 against the Mavs after managing only 92 in a 24-point loss to the Spurs Tuesday. Jackson, not coincidentally, was 1-for-11 with 2 points against the Mavs and 2-for-12 with a pair of 3-pointers against the Spurs. Eight points in two games won’t do for Captain Jack, averaging 20.4 for the season.

Where they go from here, with a game at Memphis Friday and the road trip ending at New Orleans on Sunday, is anybody’s guess. They do finish the season with four of their last five games at home with a game at Phoenix in between, so this thing could turn again depending on the Mavs and Nuggets. Of the four home games, the Nuggets are the only winning team, with the Clippers, Kings and Sonics the other three.

The Wizards’ position in the East is just as shaky – although they are far from falling out of the playoffs in the less competitive conference. However, the loss dropped them from the fifth seed pushing the Cavaliers for home court into a three-way tie for fifth with the Raptors and Sixers – three games ahead of the eighth-place Hawks – and light years (OK, seven games) ahead of the Nets and Pacers. The status of Jamison and Stevenson is huge moving forward – not only for the remaining seven games but for the playoffs.

As for the Lakers, they’re still waiting for 20-year-old starting center Andrew Bynum to return from the knee injury that has sidelined him Jan. 13. They are hopeful over the next few days, and obviously they’d love for him to play at least a handful of games before the playoffs.

Nobody figured this first Wednesday in April would be so significant, so you never know.

 

For months, the work coach Eddie Jordan and the veteran leadership had forged for the Washington Wizards had become a blueprint for success in the Eastern Conference.

They lost leading scorer Gilbert Arenas to knee surgery eight games into the season when it was apparent that the surgery he had in April had failed and his play reflected that. Center Etan Thomas had emergency open heart surgery during training camp to repair a leaking aortic valve. So it was no surprise the Wizards began the season 0-5.

The revelation of this team, however, came in the subsequent 24-14 run that put them into the thick of the race for the fourth seed in the East … until now.

The tough one-point loss at Phoenix Sunday night was their seventh in a row, dropping them to 24-26 -- their first seven-game losing streak in four years. Six of these seven games have come not only without Arenas and Thomas, but also All-Star forward Caron Butler, who strained his hip flexor. And veteran point guard Antonio Daniels (starting in place of Arenas) has missed the last two games with ankle and knee problems.

Finally, the dam has given way to injuries for the Wizards. Sure, All-Star forward Antawn Jamison had his 28th double-double of the season Sunday night, with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Underrated shooting guard DeShaun Stevenson continued to fight through his own knee issues to start his 218th consecutive game, scoring 18 points and hitting a 3-pointer just before the buzzer. And 7-footer Brendan Haywood finally appears to be maturing as a player -- he battled Amare Stoudemire with 21 points, 10 rebounds and a block.

But one game doesn’t tell this story, nor does their present losing streak. Under the circumstances, Jordan has been forced to play rookies Nick Young, Dominic McGuire and Oleksiy Pecherov more than he would have under normal conditions. And while the added minutes have been great for the development of 21-year-old power forward Andray Blatche, it’s also tougher to run an offense when reserve Roger Mason Jr. is really playing out of position at point guard.

The good stuff really began a couple of weeks after Arenas went down. That’s not to say the team is better without Arenas, who is expected to be back within three weeks. The concept is ludicrous, but it allowed Jordan to wisely employ the classic Princeton offense he learned from guru Pete Carril as an assistant in New Jersey attending Carril camps during the 1990's.

They moved the ball better, more players were involved offensively, and that carried over to the defensive end of the floor and rebounding. With everyone getting touches instead of Arenas dominating the ball, players were consistently more focused and content with their roles.

The next step was Butler and Jamison went into the locker room after a loss and split up the rookies. They were spending too much time together and not taking losses seriously enough. So they spread them out among the veterans -- a classic move of leadership.

Along with putting up great numbers scoring and rebounding, Jamison is unequivocally one of the top players in the league when it comes to living life the right way and handling himself in a professional manner as teammates, in public and with the media. He is one of the NBA’s truly good guys and he’d be great for any team as the good cop.

Butler is the classic bad cop, and we mean that in the most complimentary of ways. Having spent 15 months in jail when he was 14 for possession of an unloaded gun and a small amount of cocaine, nothing has stopped him from achieving success on the right track. The epiphany of life transformed him into an exceptional high school star, he went on to become an All-American for Jim Calhoun at Connecticut and was a lottery pick for the Heat. He was a key figure in the trade to the Lakers that sent Shaquille O’Neal to Miami and then was the guy that the Lakers shipped to Washington in the Kwame Brown deal.

The word was his deteriorating knees were those of a much older man. Since then he has been an All-Star twice. Young players do not question Butler. He is old school, the kind of guy who tapes it up and gets out on the court. It was not wise last Sunday when he attempted to come back from the hip flexor and played 39 minutes in the loss to the Lakers. It set him back. Nonetheless, his toughness and leadership are at the core of the Wizards.

Daniels, too, is a throwback player who turns 33 next month. The 11-year vet is a former lottery pick and has a championship ring from playing at San Antonio. Despite the creaky knees and ankles that also caused him to miss eight games in December, he is a factor on the floor and in the locker room -- perhaps even more so when he’s coming off the bench when Arenas is playing to lead the young players.

With two more road games awaiting them as they stumble into the All-Star break -- at the Warriors and the Clippers -- the long weekend will be a blessing for the Wizards. It will provide Butler and Daniels some time to heal. It will be that much closer to Arenas practicing full scale with the team for the stretch run.

The Wizards aren’t likely to have enough pop to fight there way back into a fourth seed, but until Butler and Daniels went down, they learned an awful lot about each other that will pay dividends at the end of the season. Jordan proved that he is an exceptional coach and knows how to push players to a higher-level of performance, utilizing the leadership of Butler and Jamison as a balance of influence.

The key is Arenas, who will have the ball in his hands. He must know it is more imperative that he fits in with the rest of team as opposed to they fit in with him. No longer does it fall upon him to shoot them into or out of games. There is no arresting his dynamic personality, that’s who he is.

But the future of this team is in their collective play -- not only Arenas, Jamison and Butler -- but everybody else too as they prepare for the playoffs. If healthy and on the same page, they’ll be dangerous -- whether it’s to the rest of the Eastern Conference or themselves, remains to be seen.

Are you listening, Gil?