Washington ? The game’s tied, 11 seconds left, the Washington Wizards call timeout, and Gilbert Arenas looks at his teammates in the huddle. He delivers a simple message: “I don’t do overtime.”

He does, however, do drama.

Plenty of NBA players hit the occasional buzzer-beater, the type of shot that provides momentum at the end of a quarter or victory at the end of a game. Arenas is making it a regular occurrence this season, with 11 buckets in the final three seconds of a period or game.

“Everybody tries to seize the moment,” teammate Caron Butler said after practice Tuesday, “but he actually does it. All the time. He’s becoming one of the best ever.”

Eight of Arenas’ 11 late makes were three-pointers, and the most recent came Monday, when he told the rest of the Wizards he had no desire to play an extra period. Then he went out and backed up his words, sending everyone home by hitting a three as time expired to lift Washington over the Utah Jazz, 114-111.

Adding a theatrical touch, Arenas turned his back and strutted away with arms aloft as the ball went through the net. It was similar to his “I’m so good, I know it’s going in” spin-and-snarl move when he hit a game-winning three against Milwaukee on Jan. 3.

“There is no point in shying away from something like that. I don’t care about the pressure. I like pressure,” Arenas said. “Ever since I was small, I always wanted to take the game-winning shot. There’s a lot of people who practice it, but … who don’t want to take it.”

He sure does, and coach Eddie Jordan is only too happy to put Arenas in position to come through for Washington, which is 21-16 heading into Wednesday’s game against the visiting New York Knicks.

“Gil’s the first option, whatever play we run. If we have 20, two or 200 (plays), he’s the first option coming down the stretch. And I have no problem saying that,” Jordan said.

Oh, and by the way, Arenas’ latest bit of derring-do capped a 51-point game, tying the arena record held by Michael Jordan. Add it to 60- and 54-point performances in recent weeks, and the 25-year-old Arenas is one of only four players in NBA history who were that young when they scored 50 or more three times in a 30-day span. The others? Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.