Rashard Lewis won’t be tempted into thinking it’ll always be this easy.
But his first night at Verizon Center as a Wizard couldn’t have been more of a cake walk, as he got to watch his new team snap a seven-game losing streak with its most lopsided win in five years, a 108-75 rout of visiting Charlotte in front of 13,825.
“We didn’t want to go out there and lay an egg, have him like, ‘What am I getting myself into,'” said Nick Young (game-high 21 points). “We’ve been waiting for one of these.”
En route to their biggest margin of victory since a 103-72 win over Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2006, the Wizards (7-19) blitzed the Bobcats (9-18) with a 21-2 run to open the second half, holding them to 1-for-14 shooting (7.1 percent) in the third quarter.
It was the best defensive performance since Washington limited Philadelphia to one fourth-quarter field goal on April 12, 2008, and a franchise worst for Charlotte, which matched its season-low with just 11 points in the quarter. The Bobcats lost their 10th game in the row and third game in their last five by more than 30 points.
“It looked like it was the first day of practice,” Bobcats coach Larry Brown said. “Maybe it was a pickup team playing against an NBA team and that’s the result.”
While Gilbert Arenas hopped the first plane to Orlando on Saturday after getting traded to the Magic, Lewis, who was sent the other way in the deal, finally arrived in Washington on Monday afternoon but not in time to suit up for the game.
Instead, he remained in street clothes as all five Wizards starters scored in double figures, led by Young, Andray Blatche (19 points) and Kirk Hinrich (18 points, 11 assists), who also had his second straight double-double.
