posted December 4, 2007 at 13:47 EST in NBA Articles

One of the hottest trends in NBA betting right now features the Washington Wizards and their amazing resiliency without Gilbert Arenas in the lineup. The Wizards are 5-4 straight up and 6-3 against the spread since Arenas underwent a form of microfracture surgery on his left knee. Even better for handicappers, the over has gone 8-1.

The reason behind the over’s success in D.C. is easy to spot: Washington is good on offense and horrible on defense. The Wizards were ranked 12th in the league in offensive efficiency at press time with 104.7 points per 100 possessions. And they were 23rd in defense at 105.3 points. But during Arenas’ absence, the Wiz offense has actually become more potent.

Before Arenas went on the shelf, he was firing up 17.6 shots per game at a career-low 39 percent from the field – clearly still bothered by last year’s knee injury. Washington is now able to spread those shots around, most notably to the remaining members of the Wizards’ Big Three, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. Butler in particular is playing lights-out with a 23.41 Player Efficiency Rating, nestled in between Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming for 16th in the league. That’s some MVP company.

Bench strength also plays a key role in Washington’s ability to score without Arenas. Butler and Jamison need support, and they’ve gotten it from the likes of rookie swingman Nick Young (21.2 points per 40 minutes), the improving Andray Blatche (14.0 points, 9.8 rebounds/40) and seventh-year veteran Brendan Haywood (14.2 points, 11.6 rebounds/40). The Wizards weren’t getting that kind of production last year, when at least one of the Big Three was invariably sidelined.

By simply taking Arenas out of their typical starting rotation (including DeShawn Stevenson, Butler, Jamison and Haywood) and replacing him with Antonio Daniels, the Wizards improve their effective field-goal shooting percentage from 43.2 to 50.8. It climbs even higher with Blatche in the middle at 59.7 percent. That unexpected boost won’t go unnoticed for too long; until it does, Washington should continue to defy the NBA odds and keep filling up buckets.

Their next opportunity comes Wednesday night against a visiting Cleveland Cavaliers team that is learning the hard way about their lack of talent minus LeBron James. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. Eastern with local coverage on Comcast Sports Baltimore.

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