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Les Bullez
White Snake had a triple-double last night
Nets Daily
Highest Plus/Minus: Caron Butler & Darius Songaila (+21)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Andray Blatche (-11)
From now on, this man is known as Thomas Stevenson.
Make no mistake about it, DeShawn Stevenson had the game-changing play of the night. After playing down to the Nets level for the first half and the start of the second, the Wizards were finally starting to put a little run together to narrow the gap. Enter Stevenson:
Sure he got a tech afterwards (not the first time that's ever happened) but I think the spark and emotional lift that it gave the team was worth the foul shot and possession. It didn't hurt that Stevenson hit a three on the next possession either. After Stevenson posterization of RJ, The Wizards had all the momentum on their side and it showed the rest of the game.
The biggest benefactor of the mo' was Caron Butler who simply took over in the fourth quarter to put the game away. At one point in the quarter he singlehandedly had a 10-1 run that put the game out of reach. The 10 points he had during that spurt were more than Richard Jefferson had the entire game. I mention that because RJ came into the game 3rd in the NBA in scoring and the Wizards had a great plan defensively to keep him from being a factor (yes, you heard me right). The Wizards essentially forced New Jersey to beat them with just Kidd and Carter, and they simply could not do it. The two of them can keep it close for a while, but they need Jefferson more now than ever to provide offense and without him tonight they just couldn't keep up with them at the end.
This was a good win for the Wizards considering The F3 (Blatche, Young, and McGuire) was held in check all night and they were outshout from the field by over seven percent. All that's left now is to hope that Songaila (who had a great game last night) isn't too sore and that he'll be ready for Tuesday's game.