Someone else will be calling
for the ball in D.C.

Did we say the Wizards were done yesterday? That needs to be amended: The Wizards are D-O-N-E. Through. Outta there. Caron Butler breaking his hand was bad enough, but last night Washington lost Gilbert Arenas to a sprained knee against the Bobcats. Arenas had been benched for missing shootaround earlier in the day, and once he checked into the game mid-first quarter, he was on the court for maybe two minutes before he collided with Gerald Wallace and went down. The MRI is scheduled for Thursday, but early word is that Gil will be out for a while. Without him and Caron, Washington could easily get swept in the first round no matter who they play … Meanwhile, the Wizards played without Arenas and suffered the second of back-to-back losses to the Bobcats. This one wasn’t a blowout like Tuesday’s game, but Wallace went off again for 27 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals. Antonio Daniels racked up 18 points and 17 assists for Washington, and Etan Thomas continued his inexplicable run of All-Star stat lines with 19 points, 10 boards and 3 blocks … Did you hear that Dime is taking over the world? Now you know … The Raptors survived a full-service deep tissue massage from Hedo Turkoglu to pull out a big road win. Hedo gave the Raps 37 points on six treys, but missed a couple shots down the stretch that could have helped Orlando pick up a win. Chris Bosh had 28 and 10 boards … Toronto just cracked the Top 10 of our latest NBA Hit List. It says here that the Raps are the best non-Central Division team in the East … Speaking of the Central, Bulls/Pistons was supposed to be the marquee matchup Wednesday night, but fell apart between Ben Wallace sitting it out (illness), Rip Hamilton and Tyrus Thomas — two of the more exciting guys on either roster — getting T’d up and kicked out early, and the Bulls dispatching of the Nicole Ritchie-flat Pistons in a blowout. Kirk Hinrich had 29 and 8 dimes … T-Mac’s back is acting up again. It flared up on him early into Rockets/Warriors, forcing McGrady to leave the game in the first quarter and not return. Luther Head nailed seven threes (30 pts) trying to make up for T-Mac, but Houston couldn’t hang with Golden State’s firepower. Baron Davis scored 25, J-Rich had 27, and Yao followed up dominant showings in his last two games with just 9 points in this one … Twenty-two seconds left and Houston down nine, the cameras showed a Rockets fan still standing up and clapping away with the thundersticks. All the while, the guy behind him is wearing that look people get when they’re stuck in a room with someone else’s bratty kid … Jed’s e-mail from the Knicks/Sixers game, with his son (he’s not a brat) sitting next to him: “I’m literally teaching Jackson how to hate the Sixers right now. And you can put that in smack.” Replied Pat (our Philly guy): “Do you really want that kid to come up worse off than he already is? Give the youngster a fighting chance in life.” … Half an hour later, Jed sends this piece of insanity: “What’s it gonna take to have no more sweets in the office? Chocolates, Twizzlers, gummys, brownies, cakes, cookies…Must stop eating sugar!!!” He’s right. Too much sugar and you end up doing stuff like this … Philly had a chance to ice the game, up two and 92-percent FT shooter Kyle Korver at the line with 2.1 ticks left. Of course Korver misses them both, but he got bailed out when Andre Iguodala got a hand on Stephon Marbury’s potentially game-winning three. Steph finished with 30 points in the loss … The irritation was just dripping off of Isiah Thomas in the post-game press conference. He started off answering questions with only one or two words, and when he finally got to talking, basically said the NYK offense is hopeless when Steph isn’t on the floor. And he’s kinda right … Christian was at the game, reporting that Nate Robinson was playing in all-white Charles Barkleys, the Garden smelled like the circus (which is in town) and the inactive Steve Francis was shooting around during warmups wearing a suit … Here’s really all you need to know about Celtics/Bucks: Kevinn Pinkney scored 15 points. No other details necessary … The Blazers were playing without Zach Randolph and LaMarcus Aldridge, Carlos Boozer proceeded to exploit the hell out of that fact for 21 points and 21 boards, and Portland still got the W on the shoulders of rookie Brandon Roy (29 pts) and career underachiever Travis Outlaw. Of course, that makes perfect sense … The WNBA Draft was on Wednesday (shockingly, it wasn’t very hyped-up), and just in case you believed some of the nonsense coming from the announcer’s table during the Tennessee/Rutgers national title game, Candace Parker didn’t leave school early to enter. But how crazy is it that the WNBA Draft is the day after the college season ends? Striking while the women’s basketball iron is hot is one thing, but we heard something about Parker and other underclassmen having until 10 a.m. Wednesday to decide what they were gonna do. Can you imagine if the NBA Draft had been the day after Florida/Ohio State? “Great game Greg Oden, now go sleep on it and tell us your decision in the morning.” … Duke’s Lindsey Harding was picked No. 1 overall by Phoenix, then traded to Minnesota for 10-year veteran post Tangela Smith (13 ppg, 5 rpg last year). And with Minnesota taking UCLA’s Noelle Quinn later with the 4th pick, that gives them a pretty impressive haul for one day. New York pulled off the same trick, trading Becky Hammon and some draft picks to San Antonio for No. 2 pick Jessica Davenport (Ohio State) and taking Texas’ Tiffany Jackson with the No. 5 pick … Surprisingly, UNC’s Ivory Latta didn’t go until 11th to Detroit. And Georgia’s Cori Chambers, a Dime “What’s My Name?” in Issue #29 (the Arenas cover), was taken 26th by Connecticut … Most surreal moment in the Dime office yesterday: we came across the International Fighting League on TV, and Jazze Pha and Bas “BONG” Rutten were pretending to fight and yelling at each other during the intro … We’re out like Agent Zero …