John Wall leads Washington Wizards to overtime win in home debut
John Wall, the number-one pick in this summer’s NBA Draft, is living up to his high expectations. The Washington Wizards' rookie point guard put together an impressive stat-line in a 116-115
overtime win over the Philadelphia 76ers (0-4) on Tuesday 2 November as the Wizards (1-2) made their home debut at the Verizon Center.
The good news was that Wall posted 29 points, 13 assists, and nine steals in 45 minutes of play last night. The bad news is that he offset these totals with a game-high eight turnovers
and five personal fouls. But the rookie out of Kentucky now has 71 points and 31 assists in his first three games, only the second player in league history, along with Oscar Robertson, to post at least 70 points and 30 assists in their first three contests.
"He's got an unbelievable will to win," Washington coach Flip Saunders said of Wall, who was nursing a sprained right ankle last night. "He got into some trouble tonight at times, but
he fought through it and was able to make some big plays at the end."
With the Wizards down three points with 3.1 seconds remaining, one of those big plays for Wall was an inbounds pass to Cartier Martin. While Wall had 13 assists, it was this one that proved
to be most important when Martin hit a three-pointer to force the game into overtime. Wall added four points and a steal in the extra period to help his team to a one-point victory. Andre Iguodala had a jumper to win it for the Sixers at the end of overtime
but missed the shot.
"I was trying to do anything to help my team win," Wall said. "And everybody else just came along with me and made big plays."
The Wizards got 23 points and eight rebounds from power forward Andray Blatche and 12 points and six rebounds from small forward Al Thornton. Nick Young chipped in with 20 points off the
bench while Gilbert Arenas, yet to play this season, sat out last night’s game.
The Sixers were led by Lou Williams, who scored 30 points off the bench, including 20 in the fourth quarter alone. Elton Brand got a near double-double with 21 points and nine rebounds
while point guard Jrue Holiday posted 14 points and 13 assists. Iguodala finished with 12 points and nine assists. Rookie shooting guard Evan Turner, selected one pick behind Wall in the same draft, finished with nine points off the bench.
Sixers coach Doug Collins believes in his team and was just as surprised as anybody about Martin’s unlikely shot.
"The kid threw in an unbelievable shot," he said. "It seems like when you are trying to win that first game, it just seems like it's whew, I don't know what to say. Our guys fought so
hard. You don't know how heartbreaking it is for me to walk into that locker room and tell these guys, 'You're playing hard, you're playing hard.’”
Tags: