Washington Wizards shine in first game under Randy Wittman; beat Charlotte Bobcats 92-75 - NBA Recap
Washington Wizards former assistant coach Randy Wittman, who was promoted to the post of head coach on Tuesday night after Flip Saunders was fired by Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld, could not have asked for a better debut.
In what was his first game as the Wizards coach, the players responded brilliantly and welcomed the new coach with an impressive 92-75 win over the awful Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night. The Wizards still have a long way to
go, however Wittman seems determined to lift the team to a whole new level.
"There's nothing to critique tonight, "This is tough - the things we've gone through - this is tough." "I've got to help them kick some of those bad habits. That's all it is - we've just fallen into a way that's not conducive to
us to win, so when I see them pull out a cigarette, I have to take it out of their mouth," Wittman said.
The Wizards looked a completely different unit tonight.
They were aggressive, accurate and displayed outstanding team work, which was lacking in their initial games.
Nick Young led the team with a game high 20 points while Andray Blatche had a double-double with 17 points 10 boards. John Wall was only used for 26:16 minutes by the new coach but Wall still managed to produce a decent tally.
Wall finished with 12 points, 6 boards and 4 assists.
Washington shot 47% from the floor and out-rebounded the under sized Bobcats 51-38.
Matt Carroll paced the Bobcats with 17 points on 7-for-10 from inside the arc while Tyrus Thomas and Cory Higgins bundled 13 each. Derrick Brown (10) was the only prominent scorer from the side.
Wizards attacked right from the word go and had already achieved a double digit lead 19-8 in the first half of the first quarter. They kept on attacking the woeful Bobcats and ended the frame with a 14 point lead 31-17.
Bobcats failed to make any sort of impact in the next frame as well, scoring only 11 points in 12 minutes that allowed Wizards to end the first half with a mammoth 20 point lead 48-28.
Nothing changed in the remaining half, as Bobcats did not have any answers whatsoever to counter the assault from the other end. The game had already been decided by the end of third frame as the lead mounted to 22 points 71-49.
Bobcats finally showed some fight in the deciding quarter by scoring 26 points, however it was too late in the day and they still lost by 18 points.
Tags: