Jordan Crawford stars as Washington Wizards stun the Milwaukee Bucks 121-112: NBA Recap
On Wednesday night at the Verizon Center, Washington, DC, the Washington Wizards played hosts to the visiting Milwaukee Bucks and won the matchup with a score of 121-112. With the loss, Bucks have now lost on four out of their
last 5 outings.
The Bucks started the game 1 and a half games behind on their pursuit of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With the loss and the Philadelphia 76ers winning their matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee
have suffered a significant setback to stay in contention for post season action.
Jordan Crawford notched up a season high performance in scoring by managing 32 points on the night. John Wall finished the game with double-double figures of 14 points and 10 assists. Kevin Seraphin and Chris Singleton added 14
and 10 points respectively.
Wizards had two other players scoring in double figures as Nene and James Singleton came off the bench to contribute 14 and 11 points respectively.
Monta Ellis was the leading scorer for Milwaukee with 31 points. Brandon Jennings contributed 25 points and Drew Gooden managed to record double-double figures of 21 points and 12 boards. Gooden was accompanied in double-double
statistics by his team mate, Ersan Ilyasova, who finished the night with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Despite the Bucks holding an advantage in the rebounding department, both sides had got an equal number of points 52 from inside the key. Bucks however failed to capitalize on the offensive glass, which was the cause of their downfall.
Another key factor in the Wizards win in this one was their ability to shoot the ball from long range - they shot the ball 53.8% from beyond the arc. Cartier Martin who came off the bench to score 7 points managed to get 6 of those
from behind the three point line, connecting on both his attempts.
The first quarter was an evenly contested contest as both sides were converting possession into baskets on almost every attempt. With all credit going to Ellis who scored 10 points in opening 12 minutes, Bucks were able to get
a minor 3 point advantage by the end of the quarter.
The difference remained the same for most part of the second quarter until the 6:29 mark when the Wizards were able to get back to 1 point of the visitors. Bucks, responded back with a 6-0 run to get a 7 point advantage. However,
by the end of the first half the difference was back down to 2 points.
Washington started the third quarter on a 7-0 run to get their noses in front in the game. The advantage was quickly taken to 9 points. However, Milwaukee tried their best to chip back the lead and were able to get it back down
to 4 at one point in the third. Nevertheless the Wizards hung tough and with three quarters gone by, they were leading by 7 points.
In the fourth quarter the Wizards quickly extended their advantage to double-figures with an 11-4 run. However the Buck pulled back with a 9-1 to close in at 100-96, but couldn’t go any further as they still trailed by the same
differential with 1:39 to go in the game.
That was where Crawford took the matter in his own hands. He scored 7 of the next Wizard points in a passage which saw the hosts outscoring the Bucks 11-6 to win this one by a margin of 9 points.
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