By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Sports Writer

WASHINGTON(AP) -- Agent Zero appears to be rounding into form.

He thinks so. So do his teammates. And his former coach, too.

Brilliant at the start and finish, though basically silent in
between, Gilbert Arenas scored 31 points Tuesday night - two
games after putting in 45 - to lead the Washington Wizards past
the Philadelphia 76ers 105-98.

"I feel a lot better than I did at the beginning" of the season,
said Arenas, who missed all but two games in 2008-09 after three
knee operations in 1 1/2 years. "The rhythm, the dribbling in
the lane, just moving without the ball: It's all coming back."

He opened the game with a personal 7-0 run: 3-pointer, 20-foot
fadeaway, 19-foot jumper. He finished the opening quarter with
15 points. Then, after adding only two points in each of the
next two periods, the three-time All-Star guard came back out of
his shell in the fourth quarter, scoring 12.

Arenas finished with eight rebounds and two assists. The second,
though, set up a dunk by Caron Butler that capped a 16-6 run,
taking the Wizards from a four-point deficit to a 96-90 lead
with about 4 minutes remaining.

Arenas and Butler scored all 16 of Washington's points in that
span.

"He was penetrating and making things happen," Butler said. "He
was getting to the paint, doing a lot of things. Doing what he
(does) best: drawing defenders and making plays and finishing
the game. That's exactly what we needed."

Over the past four games, Arenas is averaging 32.8 points. The
first three of those games - including a 45-point, 13-assist
outing against his former team, Golden State - came during a
road trip on the other side of the country.

"All it takes is a couple games to get somebody's spirit going,"
Arenas said. "I found it on the West, and I'm trying to keep it
going."

Philadelphia coach Eddie Jordan, fired by the Wizards after
their 1-10 start last season, acknowledged his former star
player made the difference Tuesday. But Jordan also made sure to
point to his current team's defensive deficiencies.

"He took it over," Jordan said. "Gilbert was very good driving
in the paint. We gave him too many layups."

Explained Jordan: "We had a horrible defensive fourth quarter.
Horrible. Horrible."

This wasn't exactly a showdown between league powers;
Philadelphia is 7-21, and Washington is 9-17. The only Eastern
Conference team with fewer victories is New Jersey, which is an
NBA-worst 2-26.

Still, the Wizards had to be pleased with the way they pulled
out this victory after dropping their previous three home games
by a total of five points. Plus, Washington lost by 26 in its
last outing, at Phoenix on Saturday, a performance coach Flip
Saunders called "extremely disappointing and pretty much
unacceptable."

Speaking before Tuesday's game, Saunders wondered aloud about
the "concentration level from the guys."

Things didn't look good for his club when Thaddeus Young's
three-point play gave the 76ers their first lead, 51-49, less
than 2 minutes into the second half.

A few minutes later, the 76ers were ahead 58-52, and Saunders
made wholesale substitutions, yanking all five starters from the
court. As captain Antawn Jamison walked to the sideline, he
kicked the advertising sign along the nearby baseline.

Asked after the game about the lineup changes, Jamison said: "I
have no comment on that."

Saunders' take?

"We had guys that were mad," the coach said. "I told them, 'You
could be mad, but you're not half as mad as I am with the effort
that we gave."

Elton Brand, who led the 76ers with 18 points and 12 rebounds,
sounded a similar note about his team.

"If we're going to not box out, not rebound, not play 'D,' then
you shouldn't be out there," Brand said. "We need games right
now. We need to be hungry."

NOTES: Reserve guard Earl Boykins scored 18 for Washington,
which had lost seven of eight. ... Butler scored 14 points.
Jamison had only seven points - he shot 1 for 6 - and five
rebounds. ... Philadelphia's Allen Iverson (knee, shoulder)
missed a third consecutive game.