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Despite a late fourth quarter charge, the Wizards hung on to take down the Portland Trail Blazers, 84-82, to pick up their first win of the 2012-13 season.
After a back and forth first half which found the game tied at 43, the Wizards built up a 15 point fourth quarter lead. But, the offense went ice cold which led to a 16-0 Blazers run to give them an 80-79 lead with 2:27 to go. Right after the Blazers took the lead, the offense woke up as Jordan Crawford knocked down a three ball to put the Wizards back on top. Lamarcus Aldridge would answer with a basket to tie the game and Emeka Okafor would hit two free throws with 39 seconds to go which would prove to be the last scoring of the night and give the Wizards the victory.
Defense and bench play was the name of the game for the Wizards as the defense held the high scoring Blazers to just 32.3% shooting and the bench outscored the Blazers bench by a huge margin, 46-4. Jordan Crawford led that effort off the bench and the team with 19 points on 50% shooting, Trevor Ariza had 14 points on 66% shooting and Kevin Seraphin had a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards. For the Blazers, Nicolas Batum and Damian Lillard led the way with 20 points a piece while JJ Hickson had a double-double with 15 points and 19 boards.
Up next, the Wizards go for two in a row as they take on the Knicks at MSG on Friday night.
