Wizards erase 24-point deficit
There has been a lot of negativity around the struggling Washington Wizards in recent days. When they fell behind the visiting Clippers by 24 points midway in the second quarter, the Wizards didn’t fall apart again. Instead, they rallied for their biggest win of the season.
John Wall scored 30 points, Bradley Beal had 27 and Jeff Green added 20 as Washington wore down Los Angeles 125-118 on Tuesday night.
Amid a 5-11 start, there were reports the team would listen to trade offers for All-Star guards Wall and Beal, and talk of a nasty practice last week with Wall yelling at head coach Scott Brooks and being fined for disrespectful behavior.
“It happened. We talked about it, we moved on,” Brooks said. “I’m not here to throw anything in anybody’s face.”
Wall, Beal and Green each scored 10 in the fourth quarter as Washington outscored Los Angeles 39-23 to pull out the win.
“We’ve still got a lot of stuff to fix,” Beal said. “I’m still not happy. I know everybody’s not happy with where we are.”
The Wizards cut the Clippers’ lead to 95-86 after three quarters and took a 115-113 lead on Wall’s layup with 2:33 to play.
Tobias Harris scored a season-high 29 points, Montrezl Harrell had 20, and Lou Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander each added 17 for the Clippers, who had won five straight. Raptors 93, Magic 91: Danny Green made a fade-away jumper with less than a second remaining to lift visiting Toronto over Orlando.
Green caught Kyle Lowry’s inbound pass with 2.3 seconds left, pulled up on the left side of the lane and hit a jumper with 0.5 of a second remaining. Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic missed on a 67-foot heave as time expired. Blazers 118, Knicks 114: CJ McCollum scored 31 points, Damian Lillard had 29 points, eight assists and six rebounds, and Portland beat host New York. Portland’s guards provided most of the offense in a game that was close most of the way, and Evan Turner helped the Blazers finally pull out the win when he put back a missed shot with Portland clinging to a two-point lead and 9.5 seconds remaining. Nets 104, Heat 92: D’Angelo Russell scored 20 points, Jarrett Allen had 13 points and 14 rebounds, and Brooklyn added to Miami’s frustration at home. Spencer Dinwiddie scored 16 points for Brooklyn, which held the Heat to 36 percent shooting. Joe Harris and DeMarre Carroll each added 11 for the Nets and Rondae HollisJefferson scored 10.