You had to look really close Tuesday night. Like Tom Cruise had to slow down the videotape in War of the Worlds to see the aliens sliding into the sewers.

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Was that...?

Not sure.

Could it be?

Was that . . . toughness the Wizards showed Tuesday night?

Did you see some of the beginnings of character taking root at Verizon Center, when Washington came from 15 down in the fourth quarter to beat the 76ers?

Caveats. First, the Sixers are awful, giving Doug Collins agita on a nightly basis. And two of the Wizards' five wins are over said awful Sixers. Second, it's one bleepin' game, DA. Get a grip. Third, the 5-8 Wizards are going into a meaty chunk of the schedule, beginning tonight with a Turkey Evening tilt in Atlanta against the Hawks. After the Atlanta comes Orlando, Miami, Toronto, Portland, Phoenix and the Lakers. The Wizards could be 5-15 real quick, and starting to dust off their chair at the Lottery in Secaucus.

But that's how you'll find out if Tuesday was a one-game mirage against a bad team, or the beginnings of something different in Washington. Because what you saw Tuesday was the kind of stuff that you see, after years or seasoning and playoffs, from contending teams: key stops, big shots, taking advantage of the opposition's mistakes. Understand: Washington is not a contending team this year, and won't be next year. But you have to start somewhere. Almost everyone in the NBA has one good game in his career. The great ones have a good game every night.

An optimist,for example, would point out that JaVale McGee has averaged 18 points, 15.3 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in his last three games, including 24, 18 and 4 against Philly, and has shot 63 percent from the floor, and is currently leading the league in blocks. Is he, in his third season -- the season when, most NBA types will tell you, is when you become who you're going to be in this league -- finally getting his feet under him? Is he, now that he's been diagnosed with athletic asthma, finally able to sustain those incredible bursts of athletic genius? Could he, now that he's been in the weight room for a while and up to 262 pounds, finally be able to play in the hole every night against grown men that are almost all older than the (still) 22-year-old?

Or was it just the center-deficient Pistons and Sixers?

Too early to tell. But there's something there, something that made Elton Brand so frustrated Tuesday that he committed an obvious flagrant foul late in the game against McGee that got him ejected.

An optimist would point out that Gilbert Arenas has not, as my friend Kornheiser and others insisted he would, set fire to the locker room now that the keys to the franchise have been handed to John Wall, and that he hasn't already got Wall knee deep in strippers and hooch, and that Arenas and Kirk Hinrich had a nice little flow to their backcourt game with one another while Wall was out with a sprained foot. (In fact, starting them and bringing Wall off the bench for a while, as Flip Saunders did Tuesday, may not be the worst idea in the world. It's not like Wall won't be on the floor with them at the end of games.)

Is it possible that Arenas really is trying to fit in, help Wall out, and patiently wait for a trade elsewhere? Or that, maybe, he wouldn't mind staying in a different role?

Or is this, like Silent Gil and Surly Gil, simply another role for Arenas: Best Supporting Actor Gil?

Not sure. But it's worth another 20 or so games to find out.

An optimist would point out that Nick Young is shooting 48.6 percent from the floor through 13 games, which would, if he kept it up, obliterate his previous career best, and that Young made his first game-winner in overtime Tuesday--off an Arenas pass, the second time in a row Arenas passed up a chance to be the hero at the end of a game in order to give an open teammate a shot. (Young made it; Andray Blatche missed Sunday in Detroit.) Is it possible that Young is finally comfortable with a sixth man role, and understands that that's the way he can get regular playing time?

Or is it just a contract year?

Wall, on the other hand, is the goods. No need to wait for the late returns. There will be games when he goes 7 for 21 and there will be games when he turns it over too much, but the big question: can he play "up here," as Joe Jackson used to say, has been answered affirmatively. His end-to-end speed is a marvel, but that was already in the repertoire; what Wall was not supposed to have in the bag was a consistent jumper.

Maybe it was just one good night, but Wall's two threes in the fourth quarter continued a start where he's shooting 38.5 percent from behind the arc, which is about eight percent higher than expected. If he's really got a decent three in his bag, he's going to be next to unguardable. Getting Jrue Holiday to bite and then go up and get fouled shooting a three-pointer in the final seconds, then knocking down all three free throws to tie the game, showed the smarts of a veteran and the guts of a star.