Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
With just a few regular season games remaining, the Washington Wizards have taken care of two of the things they needed to do, clinch a playoff spot and have John Wall back in the line-up.
Wall who was called the Ferrari of the team by Scott Brooks prior to the start of the game got some great production from Wall with 15 points and 14 assists along with Otto Porter’s 26 points and 22 points by Bradley Beal got the effort that they have been waiting since January 25th to see.
“That Ferrari is pretty good,” Brooks said referring to Wall. “He got a lot of open shots for a lot of players. That’s what he does at the highest level in the league.”
For the Hornets who have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs the hope was to come into Capital One Arena and take one from the Wizards, but it was just not meant to be and the 22 point and 13 rebound effort by Dwight Howard just was not enough in the second half.
“I just think turnovers killed us,” Howard said as Charlotte had 17 turnovers compared to 11 for Washington. “I want to say so much that it was John Wall coming back, but I think it was just turnovers.”
For the Wizards they hit the road for 3 out of the next five games to end the season and with the playoff scenario the way it stands right now would face Cleveland in the first round.
Wall has been ruled out of the game on Sunday against the Bulls in Chicago.