Kris Humphries and Deron Williams fashion a 90-84 New Jersey Nets win over Washington Wizards: NBA
Part 2
Nick Young fell to the floor and injured his foot after 17 minutes in the court and did not take part in rest of the game. His injury played a key role in breaking the momentum for the Washington Wizards.
Jordan Crawford registered 15 points while John Wall struggled tonight and finished with just 13 points. Andray Blatche, who opened the game with a phrase that said “This is your captain” to the crowd, also failed and only managed to add 11 points.
The loss caused confusion in the Wizards camp and also led to an indirect verbal brawl between the coach Flip Saunders and Blatche. According to Saunders, Blatche was selfish and preferred solo play in this game, which is why Wizards lost in the end. Blatche took no time to respond and replied.
“I said that I need the ball in the paint to be effective. You can’t keep having me pick and pop and shooting jump shots. Give me the ball in the paint. That’s what I’m most effective at. I’ve been saying that since training camp. I need the ball in the paint. I don’t want to be the pick and pop guy that I used to be. Because it’s not working for me. I’m not saying the offense has to flow through me, but I prefer to be in the paint.”
Despite making a meal of their lead, the Wizards still managed to end the first half with an 8 point advantage, 45-37. In the first few minutes of the third frame, Kris Humphries, Deron Williams and Johan Petro combined forces and reeled off a 16-8 run to level the score at 53 all. The next few minutes saw intense battle and the frame ended with Washington ahead by a point 67-66.
An 7-0 burst by Wizards in the opening minutes again propelled them into a commanding position at 74-66, however Nets were not in a mood to give up after all the good work and answered back with a massive 21-5 run, capped by a three by Anthony Morrow.
With less than two minutes remaining, the Wizards needed to reply strongly to get themselves back in the game. That never happened though and the host fell short by 6 points in the end.
Tags: