>> for a lot of folks december is a month to remember including two of our features stars. gilbert arenas has had the best month of his career. the grizzlies have one of the best rebounders. may allow him to earn his first all-star appearance. it is the griz and the wizards

on comcast sportsnet next. from the fed dex forum in memphis, tennessee, comcast sports brings you wizards basketball. they finish up the 2 day road trip as they meet the memphis grizzlies. hi folks, happy holidays, great to have you with us. steve buck house with phil sha near ras. phil, one of the teams they had a victory. gilbert arenas has had a good month. >> phil. yes. december is the month, where he

had unforgettable days out west, a 54 game point in phoenix. he had 26 in a game a couple nights ago in minnesota. this month four games with 30 or more and that improved his season high. >> brendon hayward continues the positive play. >> we have been impressed with his play averaging over ten-and-a-half rebounds and that certainly is one of the rank that we will look at and third in the league in blocked shots. he ranked 9th in rebounding and he needs to bring it tonight against zack randolph 6th best in the league. you look at his numbers over his career. he is averaging about 1 points and probably about eight-and-a-half rebounds.

he has had three seasons where he has averaged 20 and ten and that is what he is averaging this year but it is over the last four games he has gone through the roof averaging nearly 30 points and 18 rebounds and making 62% of his shots. >> rudy again injured his ankle, he will not play this game. wizards hope to rebound battling a member fies club that is number one in the league. the wizards meet the grizzlies on comcast sportsnet coming up

from memphis.

>> comcast basketball brought to you by geico. look at geico.com and look at 9147 auto and by papa johns order you your pizza. the mid south memphis, tennessee where the wizards and grizzlies clash. the wizards are looking to rebound after last week. >> thanks. with the return of brendan

haywood and the play from antawn james son the team has been in the top ten. in the last two games they have taken a step backwards especially on the offensive glass. against milwaukee and minnesota the wiz gave us 25 more rebounds in the two games combined and that led to 43 second chance points and only 2 for washington. along with getting more second chances they must pay more attention to the defensive board. that's everyone, guards included. tonight they go against the number one offensive rebounding team. a team with a highest rebounding duo in the lead. zack randolph and mark dissolve. they must take care of business. stay tuned. we will have starting lineups ant papa john's opening tips right here on comcast sportsnet.

steve: welcome back. the wizards through from minneapolis yesterday and they will playing a back to back tonight and in arizona tomorrow night. here is the starting lineup for the wizards. five and 11 on the road, again in the back card gilbert arenas. buckner andray blatche. saunders has coached there for almost ten years. has had a difficult practice in minneapolis before going to memphis in the afternoon. memphis grizzlies are 13 and 16, they are nine and five at home and have yet to fall to a home at home i should say against a team with the losing record,

five and 0 here. da marre the rookie from missouri has his first start as zack randolph is averaging a double, double and a career high with 11 rebounds a game. lionel harlens got the job after mark abhorrente was fired on january 23rd. he had been coaching for 21 years and this is his third stint with the grizzlies. we'll check the toyota who wants to watch phil? >>phil: a battle in the mid middle. steve: we head to the floor for the papa johns opening tipoffs as the wizards look for their first win in five straight games against washington's last win.

november3rd, 2004 here. that's your memphis team that swept the series for the second time in four years. last season the griz beat the whizzes by five in april and by 16 in washington in february. we are under way. washington gets the tip. great to have you with us tonight. happy holidays to one and all. wizards come out to hit the board looking to rebound literally something they were unable to do in the game against minnesota where they were out rebounded. >>phil: you are talking about a team that shot 37% and minnesota did not shoot the ball well at all. steve: here is jamison and lays it. >>phil: that will be interesting

to watch. randolph the hottest major in the league right now. steve: just been outrageous and we will talk about zack randolph. they say it hits the glass there. gives the basket to oj mayer. >>phil: he had to fight around the pick. a foot second late. steve: tied up at two and here is jamison and randolph and antawn looking for a foul and didn't get it. randolph slow to come off of the court and limping. and already without rudy again

rudy gann. >>phil: i am not sure where he was injured. the grizzlies the number one offensive team, number four overall. rebounding will be key for washington. washington only had twelve assists in the game against minnesota. that's a season low, they must do better for that. the grizzlies, their game is inside. number one in points and second chance points but they also have five starters that average ten or more and they get a lot of playing time. their bench has not been that productive, no one averages more than 17 minutes off of the bench. steve: lost to dallas, 107-101 snap ago three game winning streak against indiana denver and golden state and that was the 8th straight loss at dallas. jumpers still in play. picked up by conley. they won once in 15 tries at the

american airlines center in dallas. buckner, good rebound. >>phil: this team likes to get out in front. steve: james ma son and hey wood on the offensive glass. >>phil: that will be important to win tonight. brendan haywood getting points on the second chances. steve: game tied at four. back to fill czar. wizards home tonight night in oklahoma city. gilbert wanted a foul and didn't get it. >>phil: missed the layup, wizards have numbers. five on four. butler drives on randolph and stuffs it in. nice hesitation move by ka ron. steve: washington by two.

very frustrating loss in minnesota. gilbert arenas has said we are not a good basketball team right now. we have to prove ourselves. >>phil: that's a good point. steve: you look at some team assaying we should win that game, as you have said, they are looking at the other team saying we should win that game. >>phil: and they are only on in that third quarter. much more hungry than washington. steve: minnesota winning for the 7th time on the season. randolph shot. butler has it with brendan haywood. coy penetrates. lays it up with jamison but missed it. >>phil: he messed with his

concentration. mayo for carol and he is short. dezul and fouled by gilbert arenas. carol a rookie from missouri, a 27th overall pick last summer after a couple years in missouri. this ball is off of the front of the rim. brendon can't get to it and look at the pass to deman. steve: this team has four 7 footers. >>phil: hunter is out for the rest of the year. steve: one free throw made. gilbert and the ball went out-of-bounds. grizzlies two of 7 to start.

washington four of nine from the field. gilbert arenas nice pitch and penetrates and no where to go. gilbert had nice big numbers the other notification 26 -- night. >>phil: he has got to find a way to reel that in and to protect the ball more. steve: here is randolph driving it and missed it and tipped up and in. against dallas, randolph made 9 straight shots in the first night. 4 points in the first 15 minutes of the game. jumper, good for three. eventually the mavericks had to

double team him after he scored the 21 points. jump girlfriend for mike conley. >>phil: going back to randolph, over the last two games he has had 22 offensive reboundings. steve: and his numbers are amazing. he looks for help. gives you a couple more numbers. here is gilbert arenas on a tip away and no good. >>phil: i think butler could have gotten to that ball. steve: yes. >>phil: leave it in the hands of the officials. steve: good point. played five minutes for the first quarter. and gilbert with the jumper and

randolph for the rebound. randolph's totals were 65 point in dallas and 42 rebounds, the most in any two game span since 1978. >>phil: we talked about 31 years ago that hasn't been done. steve: here is butler's jumper and ca some. conley on the side. here is a jump, good. >>phil: boyd what a good night in minnesota. steve: three pointers that nearly had the wizards close

enough to steal it. carol tips it off for randolph. thinking bit. knocked away out-of-bounds. watson got called and slapped on the wrist. the wizards will get the ball back. with a chance to recapture the

lead. steve: wizard tried to get their first win in memphis since 2004. they dressed 8 players and came back at fed dex forum. since then the wizard have lost four straight games. >>phil: looking at mark da swal. he went on a training program and ran 8 miles and dropped 25 pounds. steve: here is butler trying to give the wizards the lead but

can't do it. ca zol left it out there. >>phil: catches the rims and falls in. steve: gilbert arenas looking for hey wood. brendon for gilbert for the open shot. that's what you are looking for. nice pass from the big man. >>phil: he had the ball long enough for the defense to drop in. gives brandon an assist on that. steve: here is mayo off of the screen. >>phil: number one in that department. they are going to continue to

work and get the shots inside. steve: another great shot from gilbert arenas. saunders put this team through the ringer on sunday before washington and flew here from memphis. he let them have it. >>phil: trying to get the players to realize what they have to do to turn the ship around. steve: here is mayo. washington and brendan haywood, third in the nba in blocks per game. >>phil: good no call. mayor was out of control on that shot. steve: rodney mock and courtney kirkland. washington is struggling from

the outside. and a foul is called on randy foy. >>phil: he jumped to the left side. he is in a position to get by the pick. he is by de zol and makes contact. steve: 340 to play. a foul is called on carol. it is so a good play that started off with brendan haywood. >>phil: challenging that entry pass to de zol and got the dereflection. steve: foy looking for jamison and can't get it to him.

a foul is called on foye. that's his second. >>phil: i think we will see the elbow and see the left arm is in there. to me that has got to be a watch, you got to call it first. steve: randy foye has to come out and he is replaced by nick young. >>phil: back when i played that was a legal deflective play. steve: not anymore. when a player is facing you, you can't impede him in any way, you can't even touch him. once he turns or if he turns, then you can get a handle on it. good hustle.

washington's ball as hasheem thabeet is in the game. here is butler. no where to go for hey wood. challenging hasheem thabeet. nice move by gilbert and tries to chase down his rebound but it is not there. conley and he is fouled from behind. >>phil: that's the benefit of running the floor. you get down there before anybody can box you out. steve: washington shooting 39% from the field. and they trail by one with a couple of free throws coming by hasheem