Washington Wizards drop Portland Trail Blazers 84-82; Snap their 12 game losing streak: NBA Recap
The Washington Wizards got their first win of the season after straight 12 losses when they dropped the Portland Trail Blazers 84-82 at Verizon Center, Washington on Wednesday night.
It seemed that Wizards may find themselves on the losing end of another close encounter yet again when they failed to score a basket in 6:47 minutes of play late in the fourth period. But somehow they managed to survive. Jordan
Crawford sank one in from downtown to put them ahead by two and they held on to their lead to win 84-82 eventually, avoiding being the 10th team in NBA history to go down 0-13.
Portland got off to a great start and were up 15-4 when Damian Lillard made a driving layup. Trevor Ariza knocked down a three pointer to make it 9-16 for the Wizards, before the Blazers responded by pushing their lead to 20-9.
Wizards scored the next 7 points to close the gap and made it a one point game on 21-22. But the Blazers scored some buckets late in the period and were leading 27-23 when they headed into second quarter.
The second period was quite close. The Wizards were up 37-31 at one stage before the Blazers came back to tie the score on 43 at halftime. A.J. Price made a shot from behind the arc to tie the score on 55 midway around the third
period. The Wizards then started pulling ahead slowly and closed the quarter with a 7 nil scoring spree to go up 68-59.
Washington started the final period sharply; they raced to a 79-64 advantage early in the period after a Crawford jumper. The lead seemed big enough even by the Wizards standards but the Blazers went on rampage with a 15-0 burst
to tie the score on 79, with 3:18 on the regulation. Crawford ended the Wizards scoring slump with a three pointer to put them up 82-80 before Aldridge countered it with a jumper to tie the score on 82.
Emeka Okafor scored two from free throws that put the Wizards up 84-82 with 39.1 seconds to final whistle. Damian Lillard was called for travelling as the clock kept on ticking and J.J. Hickson missed a jumper with 2.8 seconds
left on the clock. Blazers still had one opportunity when they gained possession with 0.2 seconds on the regulation, made a desperation attempt to score from behind the arc but it was not meant to be their night, as the Wizards won 84-82.
Jordan Crawford led the Wizards with 19 points; Kevin Seraphin posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds while Trevor Ariza chipped in with 14 points.
Damian Lillard and Nicolas Batum each scored 20 points for the Blazers; LaMarcus Aldridge had 17 points and 7 rebounds while J.J. Hickson scored a double-double with 15 points and 19 rebounds.
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