The struggling youngster erupts out of his slump for 49 points to help Wizards get to overtime against the Bucks, but Jordan steals the spotlight by showing why he's the greatest, dominating the extra session to deliver the win. Bad vibes ensue.

With Michael Jordan's will, there still is a way.





by Fred Schiebel, Head Writer

WASHINGTON -- The life of a Jordanaire sure isn't an easy one.

Richard Hamilton had the game of his life, scoring a career high 49 points, which he probably figured was enough for him to be the focus of the reporters in the locker room for one night. Unfortunately, his teammate is a living legend, and Michael Jordan showed just why in the 123-117 overtime victory against the Milwaukee Bucks at MCI Center on Wednesday.

In the extra five minutes, Jordan first hit two jumpers about a minute and a half apart from each other to keep Washington's struggling offense afloat. He then drove the lane, using a snarky little fake to get Anthony Mason his sixth personal foul and a seat on the bench to watch the rest of the game -- vastly weakening Milwaukee's already dubious defense. Then, straight after the Wizards inbounded the ball from the sideline, he was penetrating again, slicing through for two points this time, giving Washington a 113-111 lead and a tremendous amount of crowd support.

"That was the key sequence," Doug Collins said. "He just dismantled them right there, mind, body, and soul."

"A lot of you folks are saying that he [Jordan] isn't the same guy that he used to be. Trust me, I remember what that guy looked like," Bucks head coach George Karl said, referring to their clash in the 1996 Finals when he was coaching the Sonics. "And that's still him."

Tyronn Lue then found Popeye Jones for a 15 foot jumper on the left wing to increase the lead to four, but Ray Allen struck back with a three to cut the deficit to one. Lue found Jones again for a dunk on the next play, then after a defensive stand Richard Hamilton made a fifteen foot leaning runner on the baseline, to give the Wizards a 119-114 acvantage with 50.4 seconds remaining.

It was his first and only shot attempt of the overtime period.

"I don't know what happened," Hamilton said afterwards. "You'd think my teammates would try to keep feeding the hot hand, but they didn't. I was still finding ways to get open, but the ball stopped coming to me."

That didn't just start in overtime -- in the last few minutes down the stretch Jordan dominated the ball as well, and the results then were a bit more mixed. While finding his (other) teammates for some key baskets, he also airballed a three pointer, and missed an 18 footer at the end of regulation for the win.


With Hamilton not getting a shot then either, some suspected that Jordan was freezing him out -- not wanting Hamiliton to reach 50 points -- the first time a teammate of Jordan's would have reached that plateau.

"Absolutely, 100% out of the question," Jordan said. "I helped build this team. Obviously I want it to succeed. Without a doubt I've had enough success in my career that other people's success is not an issue for me. Rip had a great game on that side of the ball, and I'm happy for him."

His coach and old friend Doug Collins rose to his defense. "Michael's the veteran, the guy we said we wanted to close out games for us. What's the surprise here? I don't know about you, but I think the results speak for themselves. He was awesome."

What was strangely missing from the two was any kind of visible enthusiasm over Hamilton's performance. "I'm glad he finally shot the ball well," Collins said. "But on the flipside, Ray Allen had 32 points. Michael Redd had 20 points. So at his position we basically broke even tonight."

Hamilton did not look pleased when he heard his coach's comments. "It's hard to stop Ray Allen, especially when you're providing so much offensives support for your team on the other end. I did the best I could. I don't see Coach getting too upset when our other players have to focus on scoring and their man ends up with more points than they usually would."

Can anyone venture a guess as to what player/players he could be referring to?

Jordan wasn't having a particularly special evening himself for the first four quarters of the game, scoring 24 points on 10 of 25 shooting. He added ten points in the extra five minutes, which vaulted his stat totals into the spectacular: 34 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists.

Better to have that stat line than 49 points?

"I think so," Jordan said. "Not to take anything away from Rip, but every player should strive to have all-around skills. Scoring a lot of points is great, but I've wanted to always be a factor in all facets of the game. We need more players on this team to do more than score the ball."

Collins couldn't understand all the commotion. "Didn't we just win here?" he said, laughing. "It's only our second of the season. I know I coached the Bulls, but I'm not Phil Jackson. And two wins definitely doesn't make us the Lakers, where we're such a success we can concentrate on the soap opera of why so-and-so said this, etc. This isn't that kind of team. "

Other key players for the Bucks were Sam Cassell, who had 19 points and 20 assists, including the two free throws at the end of regulation that tied the score. Anthony Mason had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Glenn Robinson had 17 points and 7 boards.

Tyronn Lue had 15 points and 11 assists, continuing his solid play as the new Wizard starting point guard. Popeye Jones had 10 points and 8 rebounds off the bench.

Someone asked Hamilton if his getting so close to 50 points was the big reason for his obvious frustration.

"I won't lie, yeah, it would've been nice..." he said. "Hopefully I get another chance to score that much again.... but what bothers me is not being able to fulfill that goal, it's that my getting more shots at the end of the game would've probably helped the team."

That's a whole lot of honesty... especially after a victory. One wonders if he heads back down into his slump after this if we'll ever see him again.