Celebrating Polish Heritage Day, the Washington Wizards (30-32) were en route to winning their seventh game at home and moving one game closer to squeezing into the playoffs. Instead, they blew their chance in a final-second buzzer miss by point guard John Wall last night against the Indiana Pacers (33-30) at the Verizon Center, 100-99.
It was a sellout game largely due to the fact that it was a “need-to-win” for the Wizards, especially since the playoffs are just a month out. Washington sits ninth and out of playoff contention. There is no need to panic however… they still have opportunities to land one of eight spots in the playoffs. But last night was a chance for either team to win the tiebreaker season record and gain a better seeding. The Pacers go up 2-1 for the series against the Wizards.
“This was important, no question. Now we gotta go out and make it up somewhere,” Wizards Head Coach Randy Wittman said, “We’re getting ready to go out on the road for three games and we gotta go out and make up this game.”
Washington drops to 30-32 but still has games against the Chicago Bulls (1-1), Detroit Pistons (2-0) and Atlanta Hawks (0-1) to improve their standings and make the Eastern Conference postseason. They are one game behind the Pistons and two games behind the seventh place Pacers.
Wall played lights-out for most the game last night finishing 9-of-24 shooting and achieving his 36th double-double with 25 points, six rebounds, 12 assists and two steals. Losing guard Bradley Beal six minutes into the third quarter due to a pelvis strain after colliding with Pacers Myles Turner (forward) hampered the Wizards offensive efforts in the second half of the game and they scored only 35 points to the 64 they scored in the first half of the game.
Beal, who started for the first time since breaking his nose several weeks ago, had 12 points, two rebounds and three assists. Center Marcin Gortat contributed eight points and 17 rebounds. Forward NeNe’s recorded 10 points. Nene did leave in the second quarter after taking an elbow to the face from Pacers’ center Jordan Hill. The Wizards forward returned to the game with a patch and stitches over his right eye area.
Washington newcomer Markieff Morris (forward) may have been a gamble for the Wizards early on but he has been nothing but a quiet physical force to be reckoned with on defense since joining the team, scoring 14 points and logging eight rebounds in last night’s game. Guard Alan Anderson registered nine points, three rebounds and four assists in 24 minutes.
Washington was leading for most of the game by as much as 14 points in the second quarter. Going into the half, the Pacers had cut down the lead to eight, 56-64. Once an injured Beal left the game half-way through the third quarter, the Wizards went spiraling down and Indiana closed the gap and came within two points, 78-80.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Wizards shooting percentages had declined with their shooting guard out for the remainder for the night. Washington battled back defensively, contesting shots and out-rebounding the Pacers 46-42 but it still was not enough to hold down the visitor from taking their largest lead of the night, 91-87.
Wall displayed incredible hustle, creating some very crafty three-point plays, which pushed the Wizards up by two, 93-91. D.C.’s home team continued to execute plays, going on an 8-0 run, expanding their lead to 97-94 and sending the fans to their feet in excitement. With a bad turnover by Wizards guard Garrett Temple, Indiana fought back defensively, going back up by one point, which made the score, 98-97. Wall continued to respond offensively and managed to draw a sixth foul from Pacers center Ian Mahinmi. Unfortunately, Wall made only one of his free throws which tied the game at 98-98. With just 10 seconds left in the game, NeNe was fouled off a screen pass from Wall and subsequently made only one of his free throws, giving the Wizards a one-point lead, 99-98.
Indiana forward Paul George was unstoppable and, with three seconds left in the game, made both of his game-winning free throws. This proved costly for the Wizards in the end. Out of timeouts, Wall attempted a buzzer-beater jumper but rimmed out for another Wizards loss.
The final score of the game was 100-99, Pacers and now Washington will have to work extra hard if they want to play in the postseason.