Wizards Win Big on Road
The Wizards played one of their most complete games of the season and took down the Pistons 98-77 on Sunday night in Detroit.
JaVale McGee and Nick Young each poured in 22 points to lead the Wizards and for McGee, it was his 2nd consecutive double-double as he grabbed 11 boards in the Wizards rout.
John Wall was held scoreless until the 2nd half, when he went into complete takeover mode and dropped in all nine of his points which sparked a 22-2 Wizards run to put the game out of reach. Wall also had a season-high 15 assists and was in control throughout the second half. He certainly got the better of his Kentucky successor, Brandon Knight, who was held to just two points and two assists.
A milestone was reached by veteran forward Rashard Lewis as he reached the 15,000 point plateau and became just the 3rd player in NBA history to attain 15,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, and 1,500 three-pointers in a career. This earned Lewis the game ball after the game.
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The Wizards shot 47% for the game and held the Pistons to just 33%. The Pistons 32 points in the second half was the lowest total for an opposing team all season and was a testament to the hard work the Wizards put in on the defensive end.
The Wizards now head out west for the rest of the week with their next game on Tuesday night in Portland against the Trailblazers.
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Highlights
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Postgame
WIZARDS GUARD JOHN WALL:
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WIZARDS GUARD NICK YOUNG:
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On team performance:
“We came out with that enthusiasm. John (Wall) kept with it and got us going, pushing the ball and just knocked down shots today and we played aggressive and won.”
On second-half explosion:
“That’s big. We stayed with it and never folded and that’s something you got to learn from. You got to learn from things like tonight. How hard we played and how we never got down on our self.”
WIZARDS CENTER JAVALE MCGEE:
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WIZARDS FORWARD RASHARD LEWIS:
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On reaching 15,000 career points:
“It feels good. I’m definitely happy and excited about it. I’ve had a pretty successful career. Not a lot of people can be on the list. Sam Cassell told me I just passed him up. If anything it’s most definitely an honor but overall we got the win tonight and I think that makes it even better.”
WIZARDS HEAD COACH RANDY WITTMAN:
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On tonight’s game:
“This is a momentum builder for us, hopefully. I thought the first half we had periods of good play. I think we got up twice and maybe even three times by eight. Again, we just turned the ball over. Unforced turnovers that put them back in the game at 45-all at halftime. I told our guys we should be leading, but we’re not. It’s times that we talked about at the start of the game. It’s going to turn out to be an energy game and whoever won the rebounding I thought was going to be big and was going to have a chance to win and we ended up doing that.”
On not blowing the lead:
“We didn’t do that. My head went down that first half especially. John (Wall) didn’t put his head down and sometimes he has the nature of doing that. Nick (Young) has a nature of doing that and we didn’t. Is it a growing up process? Yeah, we talked about the steps we have to make and that’s one of them that you play through mistakes. The games a long game, 48 minutes.”