Dallas, TX—

Without Antawn Jamison in the starting line-up it was anyone’s guess as to how the Washington Wizards would open their 2009-2010 season against a very good Dallas Mavericks team. Tonight they opened with one of their strongest games in more than five years with a strong 102-91 victory.

The Wizards were led by Gilbert Arenas who shot 10 of 21 from the field and made 8-of-9 free throws. This performance should silence the doubters for the time being.  The big note of then night was that this was Gilbert’s most points since Nov. 14, 2007.

“I felt fine, said Arenas when asked after the game. That was all he really said about his performance tonight in what was his first real comments after being fined $25,000 in the pre-season for just being Gilbert.   Wizards Head Coach Flip Saunders seemed quite alright with what Gil was doing.

"He did his talking on the floor," Saunders said. "Gil showed glimpses of why he's got that unbelievable burst of speed and his ability to weave through people and score at the rim. I thought he ran our offense great as far as getting the ball to people. He had 29 points and nine assists so I think that anyone that had questions about where he's at ... He's just going to continue to get better and better."

Another positive light from tonight was the play by Andray Blatche and Randy Foye. Blatche is finally coming into his own on the court and that helped him to score 18 points on a 8 for 14 effort from the field. Blatche also played just three minutes short of the 38 minutes that all but three of the starters played.

While the Wizards managed to do many things right tonight, the Mavs on the other hand just could not find a way to make their new look work and one of the leaders of the team Jason Kidd expressed his displeasure with the all around play on the court and Dirk Nowitzki being their only source of offense tonight. Kidd finished the night with just 4 points.

"He would be dead by Christmas if we're going to let him be the offense," said Kidd, who had four points, six rebounds and six assists. "Our team defense stunk. We didn't rebound the ball well. Everything we're supposed to do well was a no-show tonight."

Nowitzki led all scorers with 34, his 26th consecutive game with 20-plus points. That's the second-longest such streak of his career.

This was the 318th straight sellout at American Airlines Arena, the longest in the NBA.