For the second night in a row, the Wizards went down by double digits in the first quarter and battled the rest of the game, but this time the comeback was not quite enough as the Wizards fell to the Rockets, 99-93, on Wednesday night in Houston.
After Harden caught fire in the first quarter to the tune of 17 points, the Wizards would spend most of the game trying to come back. The second quarter saw the Wizards tie the game at the very end of the half, but a Toney Douglas half court buzzer beater put the Rockets up three. The third quarter was more of the same as the Rockets went back up by 12, but by the end of the quarter the Wizards had cut it to four thanks to a 10-2 run to close it out. The final quarter was more of the same as the Rockets opened up yet another double digit lead and the closest the Wizards could come was five. Chandler Parsons hit a couple of dagger three balls in the final two minutes to seal it.
The Wizards did well to hold the third highest scoring team in the league to under 100 points, but could not breakthrough offensively, shooting only 39%, against the Rockets who give up the most points per game in the league at over 105. Okafor had a big night in his homecoming with his parents in attendance, scoring a season high 19 points on 9/12 shooting. Bradley Beal had 20 points, Crawford had 17 points and 8 rebounds and Webster had 16 points. For the Rockets, Harden scored 31, Parsons had 18 points and Asik had 9 points and 16 rebounds.
The Wizards have a big weekend ahead of them matching up at home with the Lakers on Friday and in Miami on Saturday.
