Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
For the second straight night the Wizards could not find the right combination to stop one player from the opposing team. Last night it was Wemby and the Spurs and tonight it was the Joker who did it to the Wizards in a 113-104 loss to Denver.
It really isn’t a laughing matter anymore, apparently the joke is on the Wizards when it comes to finding a way to stop a superstar player and also find ways to have stars of their own actually score consistently night after night. We don’t need 30 or 40 from either Kuz or Poole, just give us 18 points a night, every night from both combined with the scoring the have the past two nights and they actually might win another game this season.
Many will say this was the defending NBA Champs that the Wizards played tonight, and they should expect them to play the Wizards hard and that Nikola Jokic is going to get his buckets no matter what. But does this look like a stat line the Wizards can match? 42 PTS 12 REB 8 AST 75% FG. Just another day at work with an opposing player having MVP chants from the crowd.
For the most part, this game was really over by halftime when it came to the Wizards finding answers for Jokic.
Denver came out firing to open the third quarter. Murray and Michael Porter Jr. hit back-to-back threes and forced an early Washington timeout. The Nuggets kept the lead above double digits but the only thing that prevented the game from becoming more of blowout was the poor free throw shooting by the Nuggets.
The Wizards went on a run of their own late in the third quarter to get it back within nine and force Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone to call a timeout.
Washington would trade buckets with the Nuggets for most of the quarter, but by the time Jokic had a seat on the bench for the remainder of the quarter, he had 38 points, and the Nuggets again were up by double digits 89-78 ending the quarter.
The Wizards went completely cold to start the fourth quarter as it took them until the 9:47 mark to score when Landry Shamet hit a pull up jump shot to cut the lead to 11 at 91-80.
Washington had the game within striking range after two free throws by Corey Kispert cut the game to 99-90 with 5:37 remaining, then Denver fired back with two more jumpers to put the game basically out of range at 109-92 after the shot by KCP.
Fans did get to see Jokic break a record tonight, with his 93rd career game tallying at least 30 points and 10 rebounds. He passes NBA legend Michael Jordan for the 26th most such games in NBA history.
