Washington ? In the Washington Wizards locker room, Gilbert Arenas is known as “T.O.”

Terrell Owens? Yep. Teammate Jared Jeffries, the team’s unofficial nicknamer, figured it was appropriate because Arenas, like the football standout, is a big-time player when the game is on the line.

“Jared will be like, ‘C’mon, T.O., we need to go now.’ And then I just do what I do,” Arenas said. “If it’s two minutes and the game is close, Antawn (Jamison) knows what I’m going to do. They all know that I’m going to shoot the shot, I’m going to try to make something happen.”

Arenas said those words during the regular season, but they stand as a most appropriate explanation for what happened Wednesday night in Chicago. With the score tied and 5.2 seconds remaining — after the Wizards had blown a 22-point second-half lead — Arenas became his team’s one and only option to win the game. Passing the ball was not even a consideration as he dribbled down the clock, moved left with Kirk Hinrich in his face, and hit a 14-footer to give the franchise its biggest victory in decades.

Touchdown, T.O.

“We needed that last shot,” coach Eddie Jordan said Thursday. “He’s continued to grow. The All-Star status — he’s wearing it like a badge of honor.”

The 112-110 victory in Game 5 was Washington’s first road playoff win since 1986. With a 3-2 series lead, the Wizards today can clinch their first postseason series victory since 1982 and their first seven-game series win since 1979. No one is giving the Bulls much of a chance, especially since they are headed to Washington to play before another sellout crowd at the MCI Center, where they have lost 10 straight.

“The guys were down this morning,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles said after practice in Chicago, “so we attempted to get them into the practice, have a hard practice, and get some emotion going again. … We feel that as a staff, and at least some of the guys believe, that we can win a game tomorrow.”

Jordan took the opposite approach with the Wizards, holding a light workout as he purposely tried to bring his team down from the emotional high of their victory the night before. Even Jamison, usually the voice of calm and reason, admits he got carried away by yelling “It’s over” in the aftermath of Arenas’ shot. On Thursday, he tried to claim that he was talking about the game, not the series.

“I was too excited,” Jamison said.

Skiles said the Bulls aren’t playing with the same intensity they showed in the regular season, and that he’s having trouble finding matchups that can stop the Wizards’ prolific offense.

Chicago came into the series short-handed, and guard Chris Duhon — who didn’t practice Thursday — has been battling a sore back.

“We’ve got to come out with a lot of life,” Skiles said. “The presentation has to be that we’re there to win the game. Then as the game wears on, hopefully we can settle into the game, take their crowd out of it a little bit.”