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Highest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila +19
Lowest Plus/Minus: JaVale McGee -12
Best Five Man Unit: James, Butler, Jamison, Blatche, McGuire (+9 at the end of the 2nd Quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Jamison, McGuire, Young, McGee Crittenton (-7 early in the 4th Quarter)
Game Thread Comment of the Game: "Lopez's look of disbelief accentuates his neanderthalish charm" by morethesamewiz
(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
Antawn Jamison had a double-double with 28 points and 12 rebounds as the Washington Wizards won consecutive games for only the second time this season with an easy 107-96 victory over the Nets.
Things started off well for the Wizards as Darius Songaila had the first points of the game on a long 2-pointer. If he could just extend his range about 8 inches, Songaila would be a deadly 3-point shooter. The Wizards were ahead after the 1st quarter, 20-18. It was only close because New Jersey was killing the Wizards on the boards with 17 rebounds, including 6 on the Offensive glass.
After a back-and-forth 2nd quarter, the Wizards broke the game open in the 3rd with McGuire, Jamison, and Butler dominating the offensive glass. The Wizards had 16 second chance points and outscored New Jersey 35-23 in the quarter.
The Wizards started the 4th leading by 15, but the Nets chipped away throughout the quarter, cutting the Wizards lead to 5 points on an open 3-point shot by Keyon Dooling with 6:20 left (one of the very few open shots the Nets had all game long). But Dominic McGuire banked in a 10-footer on a spin move and followed with one of two free throws on the next possession. Jamison hit a jumper on a nice assist from Caron Butler. Mike James got a clean steal from Devin Harris that lead to goal tending call on Brooke Lopez, and then James caught Harris napping and went around him for a layup to put the Wizards back up by 13. From there, the Wizards cruised to victory, as they beat the Nets for the second time this year at the IZOD Center.
Some random thoughts and notes:
The Wizards defense looked much more balanced tonight. They didn't show that "collapsing" defense that we've seen all year. Instead, the Wizards defenders stayed with their man coverage, and contested shots all night. As a result, the Nets were only 7-29 (24%) from beyond the 3-point arc.
Devin Harris was able to pretty much do whatever he wanted on the court, except find open 3-point shooters. Harris had 26 points; shot well, drew a lot of fouls and dished out 10 assists, while the rest of the Nets team, and especially their outside shooters were terrible. The Nets main outside threats (Carter, Dooling, and Yi Jianlian) shot a combined 11-34 (34%).
Butler and Jamison had their normal All-Star type games, but the Wizards got contributions from other players as well:
Dominic McGuire had a very good game. He ended up with 11 points, a career high 14 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocked shots. Dominic had several spectacular blocks, and a couple of other blocked shots that were not credited.
Darius Songaila started out 5 for 5, and ended up with 10 points, and played good defense on the Nets 7-ft Rookie Brook Lopez - despite being in foul trouble for most of the second half.
Javaris Crittenton came in and gave the Wizards a solid 23 minutes, with 4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. He also played sound defense against Harris, while pushing the ball and leading the fast break.
Andray Blatche just missed a double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds in 20 minutes.