Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
One game after getting Bradley Beal back in the line-up, tonight they had to do again without him against a Portland Trailblazers team that has had its own stuggle this season, but the end result would not suggest that.
This game started with one of the strangest ejection calls I have seen in years, perhaps ever when Isaiah Thomas was ejected for appearing to contact one of the game’s officials.
Thomas was tied up along the sideline by Portland’s Carmelo Anthony. As he broke away from Anthony, Thomas made contact with referee Marat Kogut, who stumbled into the crowd. The call was reviewed and upheld.\
Wizards coach Scott Brooks thought the contact was accidental.
“I mean I had a different view of it obviously,” he said. “They were in a scrum and they were fighting for the ball, a jump ball. I had a view that it looked like he lost his balance but (Kogut) had a better view and then they looked at it. They looked at it so you would hope they made the right call.”
While this didn’t change much of the outcome of the game tonight, Thomas has been a catalyst over the past few weeks and could have very well been the difference in the game tonight had he been there for the Wizards.
Portland was led by C.J McCollum and Damien Lillard. It was Lillard who started an 11-1 run in the third quarter with a jumper and then added a 3-pointer to make it 73-64. Another familiar foe for the Wizards, Hassan Whiteside, scored four straight points on a tip-in and layup and, after a Washington free throw, Lillard hit two foul shots to put Portland up 79-65.
Washington has been getting some amazing offense from their bench players including another solid career high night from Jordan McRae with 35 points which included 13 in the fourth quarter. Garrison Mathews added 18 points and Ish Smith scored 16 for the Wizards, who have lost four of five.
The homestand doesn’t get much easier for the Wizards tomorrow night as they play the hot Denver Nuggets, who had their way with them last month at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
