This 60 is over Lakers' limit

By Helene Elliott

Dec. 18, 2006 12 AM PT

Gilbert Arenas offered his first bow to the crowd at Staples Center, to his father, his high school coach and friends and relatives who were lucky enough to share with him a moment that was so splendid, he could barely express his joy.

His second bow was for himself, to acknowledge that if he didn’t quite realize his dream of playing for the Lakers, he did the next-best thing -- he beat them Sunday with a 60-point performance that put his name just below that of Wilt Chamberlain in the record books.

Arenas, a graduate of Van Nuys Grant High, scored 16 points in overtime to lead the Washington Wizards to a 147-141 overtime victory over the Lakers and break the Wizards/Bullets franchise record of 56 points, set by Earl Monroe against the Lakers in February 1968. He also became the first Lakers opponent to score 60 points since Chamberlain scored 65 in February 1966.

“It’s just a dream,” Arenas said, clearly still absorbing the magnitude of his accomplishment. “I was thinking of bowing after regulation because I thought I was going to hit the game winner, so I turned around thinking I was going to bow, but it didn’t go in.

“It’s an honor. I didn’t realize it. I just went out there and tried to stay focused. When you come back home and need 75 tickets it’s easy to lose focus.”

His focus never wavered despite playing against Kobe Bryant, his friends’ favorite player and the Lakers’ top scorer Sunday with 45 points. He outdid Bryant, no small feat.

“I knew he was gonna take the challenge of stopping me,” said Arenas, whose previous high was 47 points against Miami in 2004. “He knew they weren’t going to foul him out of the game.”

They didn’t speak, Arenas said, and there was certainly no time for hero worship on Arenas’ part. Or any reason for it.

“I’m not a trash talker. He doesn’t really talk trash. He just goes out there and plays,” Arenas said. “A guy who comes off an injury and to be doing what he does, it’s unbelievable.”

So was what Arenas did Sunday.

“Gilbert was great,” Coach Eddie Jordan said. “Everybody executed their roles, even though they knew Gilbert was rolling. That’s where this team is, they understand that Gilbert was going to carry us. We have forwards who can pretty much get the job done, but when Gilbert was rolling, you let him have it.”

That unselfishness, Arenas said, made the performance that much more special. He made 17 of 32 shots, including five of 12 three-point attempts, but laughingly said he expected to hear from his father about the six free throws he missed in 27 tries.

Caron Butler, with 27 points, and Antawn Jamison, with 25, gave him enough support that the Lakers couldn’t double-team Arenas too much or risk getting hurt.

“It feels better when you do it within the team system, within the flow,” Arenas said. “I never really thought I would take that many shots to hit 60. It wasn’t a plan. But since I did it, it feels great.”

As great, perhaps, as if his biggest dream had come true and he had been able to play in his hometown.

Playing for the Lakers had always been his focus, but he was drafted from Arizona by Golden State in 2001 and signed with Washington as a free agent in 2003.

“Everyone dreams of playing for the Lakers in L.A.,” he said. “You always dream, what if me and Kobe played together? You know, what if I was here when Shaq was here, would I have a ring? Everyone dreams about it.”

For now, he’ll gladly settle for his memorable performance Sunday.

It was never sure, not until the last minutes of overtime, and Arenas knew that. The Lakers, who rallied from a 21-point deficit to defeat Houston on Friday, erased a 17-point deficit Sunday and tied the score with 5.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but Arenas and the Wizards would not let them have a second successive triumphant overtime ending.

Arenas said he wasn’t concerned about who the Lakers threw at him.

“The only person I was actually worried about when I was driving was [Brian] Cook because he’s the only one who takes charges,” Arenas said. “[Andrew] Bynum hasn’t been in the league that long. I just wanted to attack him.

“We just tried to stay poised because we’d lost a lot of games in overtime. If we could hang in, we knew we could win because they’d played a lot of emotional games.”

They hung in, and in fine fashion.

“Arenas was spectacular in tonight’s game,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. “He made a lot of different types of shots, drives, three-pointers, and still had that energy left to finish that game off.”

Arenas’ only regret is that he didn’t have much time to share his happiness with his family because the Wizards had to leave for a game today in Denver. Dreams don’t always come true as they are first imagined, but that doesn’t make them any less sweet.

“It’s a Christmas present to myself,” said Arenas, who said he’d give an autographed jersey to his former Arizona teammate, Luke Walton, even though Walton hadn’t asked for one. He gave his game jersey to a former teammate at Lake Balboa Birmingham High, which he’d attended before he transferred to Grant.

“It’s a great feeling,” he said. “I can’t believe I did it.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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Fill ‘er up

Most points scored in an NBA game this season (* overtime):

Points: 60

GILBERT ARENAS

Washington; at Lakers; (Dec. 17)*

Points: 57

MICHAEL REDD

Milwaukee; vs. Utah; (Nov. 11)

Points: 53