Gilbert Arenas' buzzer-beater on Wednesday night was just his latest success with the Wizards. Mitchell Layton/NBAE via Getty Images

The Washington Wizards were right about one thing: They believed the 2001 draft would produce their next franchise star.

That star turned out to be Gilbert Arenas, a second-round afterthought (No. 31 overall) taken by Golden State. Overlooked by teams that considered him to too small to be a shooter and too self-absorbed to be a passer, the 6-foot-3 Arenas spent the next two years making fun of his critics while earning himself a six-year, $64 million free-agent contract in 2003 as the Wizards' new point guard.

That money had been expected to go to Kwame Brown, whom the Wizards originally picked No. 1 overall in 2001. While Arenas has tried tirelessly to prove he was the best player in that draft -- his rivals include Pau Gasol (the No. 3 pick and eventual Rookie of the Year), Richard Jefferson (No. 13) and Tony Parker (No. 29) -- Brown has been running in reverse.

The Wizards suspended Brown on Tuesday for the remainder of the playoffs for skipping practices and assailing head coach Eddie Jordan. The next night in Chicago, Jordan drew up a play that Arenas converted into a buzzer-beating jumper to give the Wizards a 3-2 series lead and a chance to close out their first-round series against the Bulls on Friday in Game 6 at Washington.

The Wizards might have been able to use the 6-foot-11 Brown's 243 pounds in a potential second-round match-up against Miami's Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning. But they haven't missed him in this series, because Arenas -- along with Antawn Jamison and Larry Hughes -- has taken on the leadership Brown was meant to assume. Should the Wizards fulfill their apparent intention to trade Brown, it could create more space for them to re-sign Hughes as a free agent.

More than a few teams have called this week hoping to take Brown's potential off the Wizards' hands for little in return, and why not? His next franchise can invest a risk-free year in Brown before deciding whether or not to re-sign him as an unrestricted free agent in 2006. But it's going to take more than giving him a new uniform and playbook: He needs to be paired with a top assistant coach/guidance counselor like Indiana's Mike Brown, Milwaukee's Jim Boylen or Memphis' John Welch -- a dynamic caregiver who will invest the time to help him work through his problems. Kwame needs a lot of help.

Upping the scoring

It produced a league-high 62 wins and 110.4 points per game, yet all Phoenix head coach Mike D'Antoni heard was that his fast-break offense would fail in the slow grind of the postseason. "I thought for sure it would work in the playoffs,'' he says, and he has factual data to back his claim. Teams across the board are running faster and scoring more in the playoffs than in the regular season.

As of today, playoff teams are averaging 99.4 ppg (last year during the playoffs they averaged 88). Teams are shooting 44.8 percent overall (compared to 42.1 percent in postseason last year) and 36.5 percent from the 3-point line (32.4 percent last year). At the same time teams are averaging 13.9 turnovers, a 1.0 reduction from last year's playoffs.

Scoring has ballooned -- 10 clubs are exceeding 100 points per game in the playoffs, something only five teams accomplished in the regular season. Referees are continuing to penalize hand-checking on the perimeter in the postseason, but D'Antoni believes teams have adapted to the rule change four years ago that authorized zone defenses. "It's had a big impact because teams are able to load up defensively,'' D'Antoni says. "That means you have to have more guys on the floor who can shoot.''

The Dallas-Houston series reflects the positive change. Both teams are scoring more than 100 points a game while playing an up-and-down pace that recalls the glorious 1980s (the era before Pat Riley went to the dark side). Critics argued that zone defenses would curtail the superstars, but most teams play zone only a handful of times per game. Far more important is an up-tempo pace that is bringing out the best in Tracy McGrady and Dirk Nowitzki.

The Suns swept Memphis in the first round while averaging 113.8 points against a Grizzlies defense ranked No. 4 during the regular season. Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion have been resting since Monday, giving them a full week off before meeting the exhausted survivor of Saturday's Game 7 in Dallas.