Magical Pixels, Wizards vs. Nets: Nene's return helps power Washington to victory

Welcome back, Nene.

Man, it's fun being healthy, isn't it? Enjoy it while it lasts, because the Washington Wizards never seem to have their full roster available (and actually, they lost Glen Rice Jr. to wrist surgery the same day they got back Nene, so yeah).

But at least for one game, the Wizards had all their vital pieces in a 113-107 road win over Brooklyn Nets, and for the most part played one of their more complete games of the season.

Nene was huge, scoring 17 points in less than 23 minutes off the bench. Seven Wizards scored in double figures, including Bradley Beal, who showed no signs of lingering rust in his second game back from injury, scoring 15 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three. John Wall chipped in 21 points, and Marcin Gortat (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Trevor Booker (seven points, 13 rebounds) dominated the glass, helping Washington to 51-31 rebounding advantage over New Jersey.

The Nets have struggled all year, but they'd won four out of five, and beating them in Barclay Center with Brook Lopez back in the lineup, Joe Johnson coming off a 37-point outing, and with Paul Pierce exploding for 27 off the bench, was pretty solid.

KEY LINKS

Road team recaps: BF StoryStream | Washington Post (gamer, sidebar) | AP | CSN Washington (recap, sidebar) | Wiz of Awes | DC Pro Sports Report | District Sports Page| Wizards.com | Monumental Network | Daily Wizdom

Home team recaps: NetsDaily | NY Times | NY Daily News | NY Post (gamer, sidebar) | Newsday | The Record | Wall Street Journal | NBA.com | ESPN NY | CBS NY | From Russia With Dunk

Game highlights

Postgame interviews: Randy Wittman | John Wall | Bradley Beal | Marcin Gortat

KEY STATS

20 - Washington's advantage in rebounding and second-chance points against New Jersey. The Wizards outrebounded the Nets 51-31, and scored 23 second-chance points to the Nets' three.

75 - Wall's three-point shooting percentage against the Nets, on 3-of-4 shooting from deep. Don't look now, but Wall is shooting 32.6 percent on threes this season, which isn't very good, but incredible given how Wall has shot in the past.

TWEETS OF THE NIGHT

Nene vs. Lopez, a battle that has raged since antiquity. pic.twitter.com/RRMNlsqQYI

— Sweden, DC (@SwedenDC) December 19, 2013

I'd estimate that 50% of Nene is 532% of Seraphin.

— Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) December 19, 2013

2-0 in New York. The decision to send @MikePradaSBN there was pure genius.

— Umair Khan (@UKhanNBA) December 19, 2013

Beal: "You don’t know how he’s feeling, the pain he’s in. So who are you to judge him? We never do that in this locker room."

— Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) December 19, 2013

Kevin Garnett on losing to #wizards: "When they're full-on, they're a tough team to play...It wasn't like we were playing Swiss cheese."

— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) December 19, 2013

VIDEO/GIF OF THE NIGHT

It's a Wall block party. (H/T @Truth_About_It)

GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

I mean, the Wizards won and everything, but this is too good. Sorry, Randy.

GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

#	Commenter	# Comments
1	Wall_Hopeful	87
2	souldrummer	74
3	jarem	69
4	_Chris	60
5	DCrez	50
6	Baird15	41
7	Big Purp	39
8	neualex308	36
9	SladeKillah	33
10	Newjamarcus	31
11	KurisuDevil	30
12	Banode	27
13	Durant	26
14	Yeti60	24
15	tw10	22
16	Big Spoon	20
17	LRJ	18
18	WIZ SPURTIN	15
19	ZonkerBL	15
20	wync	11
21	rsilbe	8
22	johnwallposterizes	7
23	b3nz	6
24	thewiz06	5
25	Entr0py	5
26	DeadheadSkins	5
27	WizforLife	4
28	Rice2012	4
29	Rhamm21	4
30	The Hoops Guru	4
31	John Wall Stan	4
32	p.robb87	4
33	Clutchcity202	3
34	pwilson319	3
35	DCeee	3
36	Craig_	2
37	spanishfalcon	2
38	abovelegit	2
39	hotplate	2
40	ilintar	2
41	PasqualeGMP	1
42	khrabb	1
43	melody1951	1
44	HSLex	1
45	HijackedD	1
46	Jormond Wall	1
47	ATrueNigerian	1
48	VBfan	1
49	17squall	1
50	The Dark Side of the Sun	1
51	DavidDunn	1
52	jeyhsi	1