Washington Wizards down Portland Trail Blazers 124 – 109; Nick Young and John Wall run the show – NBA Recap
The Washington Wizards recorded an impressive 124 – 109 win over the Portland Trail Blazers here at the Rose Garden. The Wizards backcourt duo of John Wall and Nick Young was in scorching form and helped the side blaze past Trail Blazers much vaunted defence.
The two young Washington stars combined for a total of 64 points, with Young scoring a game high 35 and Wall not far behind with 29. The point guard also had 9 assists as he helped get the whole team in rhythm, for devastating effect.
Centre JaVale McGee was also on song, securing his double-double with 18 points and 11 boards while Jordan Crawford made an impact from the bench with 21 points for the Wizards.
The Trail Blazers were hampered because of an early injury to star forward LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge, who has been selected for the All-Star game, limped out with a hurt ankle with the first two minutes of the game, leaving Portland severely underhanded
in attack.
In his absence Nicolas Batum took over most of the scoring responsibility, garnering a team high 33 points. Gerald Wallace also stepped up on attack, scoring 25 points and handing out 8 assists. Centre Marcus Camby ended up with a double-double, 13 points
and 12 rebounds.
Despite losing Aldridge, Portland looked strong in the opening quarter. They were actually leading 26 – 20 with just under two minutes left to play but the Wizards finished with an 8 – 0 burst, turning the score to 28 – 26 in their favour.
The real damage to Portland was done in the 2nd quarter. Washington had an early 8 – 2 run to put them firmly in control. They kept scoring in bursts and the Trail Blazers struggled to keep pace. When the teams went into halftime, the Wizards
had established a double-digit advantage at 58 – 46.
The Trail Blazers came out firing after the interval but they couldn’t however really outdo the Wizards. With both teams scoring freely, the fans were treated to a 79 point extravaganza in the third period. The 36 points scored by Portland weren’t nearly
enough however, as they still trailed 91 – 82 at the end.
It was always going to be an uphill task for the Trail Blazers in the final period, and was made even tougher thanks to a 6 – 0 spurt at the start. The Trail Blazers had several bursts in the segment but Wizards were always one step ahead.
The game thus petered out with Portland failing to get close, 124 – 109.
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