Washington, D.C–
On any given night the Washington Wizards deliver some of the best basketball in the NBA, then there are other nights where the Wizards, well, just sort of show up, until the 4th Quarter that is. Tonight was r another one of those nights, where the Wizards who trailed by as many as 20 points and 13 at the half were able to mount an amazing comeback to force the Bobcats to overtime.
In the overtime period, the Wizards found themselves in the same territory they did at the beginning of the game, sluggish offense and the Bobcats capitalized and took a lead the Wizards would not be able to find a way to overcome in a 94-88 loss that again set them back in playoff seeding.
“We getting better as a team, we two games above .500,” said Al Jefferson, who had 20 points and 18 rebounds. “But does it really matter where we’re at for seeding-wise? No, we are just happy to be in the mix.”
“To go from basically the worst team going to the 6-seed, I mean, it shows a lot,” said guard Kemba Walker, who scored the only field goal in overtime for either team.
The victory tonight by the Bobcats moves them into 6th place in the playoff race and puts the Wizards in the 7th spot in where they would face the Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.
Charlotte went 1-for-7 from the field in overtime, while Washington was 0-for-8 and got its only point from a free throw by John Wall with 34 seconds remaining.
Wall’s game tonight certainly didn’t reflect the output of the game where he recorded another triple-double of the season — 14 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. Marcin Gortat finished with 27 points and 14 rebounds for the Wizards.
The Wizards may have been down by as much as 30 points had it not been for the tough play of Trevor Booker off the bench in the first half. He kept the team in the game by himself in the first half, finishing with 16 points and hitting all 8 shots from the free throw line.
“We can’t dig a hole that big in the first half and expect to win games late. We have done that a lot this season and we need to find ways to make sure it doesn’t happen going into the playoffs,” said Wizards Head Coach Randy Wittman.
