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The Washington Wizards are one of the worst teams in the NBA. They stand at 16-37. Surprisingly, they have won both the matches which they have played against the Nuggets this year. The Nuggets, it should be remembered, have a record of 34-22 and are fifth in the competitive Western Conference. The Wizards just swept the season series versus the Nuggets for the first time since 2002 with their 119-113 win today. The Wizards had not won at home against Denver since back in February 19, 2010. The final score looked respectable but the Nuggets actually trailed by 94-78 entering the fourth quarter. They went on a 18-4 run to cut the deficit down and give themselves a chance. Towards the end, Andre Iguodala, surprisingly, backed off against John Wall in the last minute, allowing the guard to drill an open jumper which gave the Wizards the lead for good and let them put the game away.
“They’re a better team than their record says,” Denver forward Wilson Chandler said of the Wizards. “And they just played harder than us, that’s the bottom line, guards and the bigs.” Quite often, strong teams are led into trap games versus teams like the Wizards which have a losing record. And the Wizards are aware of the phenomenon. “I think sometimes when we play so-called better teams, we feel as though we have something to prove,” said Wizards guard Bradley Beal.
“I think we come out harder, that much harder,” said Beal. He did come out much harder and fell down harder still. There was a scary moment in the game for Beal as he went down hard on his head, but he bounced back up after a brief stay on the floor. He finished with 17 points and a career high 12 rebounds. “We were saying on the bench — he’s having a rough rookie year,” said Emeka Okafor, who led the Wizards with 17 points and 13 rebounds. “Got his teeth knocked out yesterday, and then continued to get banged up twice, ran into the cameraman and then did some type of gymnastic-worthy landing. It’s crazy, but he’s a tough kid, he’s young, his body can handle it.” Okafor had 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Wizards.
The Wizards have been turning it on in defense these days. They have held their opponents to under 100 points in their last 11 games. But the Nuggets didn’t fare well on that end of the floor. “On the road, we’re just not a very good defensive team. Statistically, we give up the 3-ball. We don’t shoot it very well, but we give up the 3-ball and we give up too many points. We try to outscore people on the road. Defensively at home we’re pretty good, but defensively we’re ordinary at best on the road,” said Nuggets coach George Karl. One thing not mentioned by the coach here is the fact that Denver is the mile high city. Historically, they have enjoyed a better record at home than away. It’s not easy for teams to go to Denver and come away with a win. It’s just as much about the altitude of the place as it is about the defensive attitude of the Nuggets at home. The Nuggets have just given up 119+ points on the second consecutive road game.
Chandler had a great game today as he finished with 22 points. One of the highlights of his game was when he dribbled behind his back and went right at Nene for an and-one layup. “Just trying to be aggressive, find some type of rhythm and try to be effective,” Chandler said. “I came in early today and worked out with coach John Welch.” If only the entire Nuggets team played that well today, they may have won this one. The Wizards did well to move the ball around and spread the scoring load. “Getting back to being who we are,” Washington coach Randy Wittman said. “You know, 27 assists, that’s what this team has to do. Moving the ball side to side, attacking off the dribble, making the extra pass, playing inside out. We got back to that tonight for the first time over the last two games.”
Both teams had 172 points combined through the three quarters. The Wizards had 94 points through the first three quarters, more than they managed the entire game in their last loss to the Raptors in which they finished with 88.
The Nuggets may have been the away team but they got more calls from the refs. They made 37 trips to the line and converted on 31 of those for 83.8% shooting from the charity stripe. The Wizards shot 24 of 33 from the free throw line. Ty Lawson may have shot 8 of 20 for the game but he went to the line 12 times and connected on 11 of those. Lawson had 25 points and 11 assists and was undaunted by the imposing frontline of Nene and Okafor.
The Nuggets shot a woeful 18.2% from the three point line. As a team, they went 4 of 22 from beyond the line. Ty Lawson went 0 for 6, Danilo Gallinari was 0 for 3, and Wilson Chandler was 1 for 4 from downtown. The Wizards in contrast went 11 for 24 from beyond the arc. For them, AJ Price shot 4 of 6 and Webster had 3 of 6. The Nuggets are an athletic team, but on this day the Wizards out-rebounded them 49 to 36.
This game marked the return of JaVale McGee. Not that he was too sentimental about it. “It really wasn’t emotional. For some reason I have a selected memory so I remember the stuff I want to remember, so it wasn’t like I was having flashback or stuff like that, so it wasn’t bad.“
Here are the highlights from this game -
