Heat 112, Wizards 88
Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson looked at each other and agreed that with the way the Wizards lost Friday night, there was no they were going to be seen out in public afterward at a restaurant or a bar.
“Just go home, play some Madden, and go to sleep,” said Haywood.
The rest of his teammates needed to heed that advice, too, after Washington opened the second half of the season getting embarrassed by a motivated Miami, 112-88, in front of a sellout crowd at Verizon Center.
The Wizards (14-28) knew the Heat (22-20) had an axe to grind after losing by 39 points to Charlotte two nights before, but they managed to stay competitive for about four of the game’s 48 minutes.
“We had no juice,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “I was concerned a little bit out of our shootaround we had this morning. We didn’t seem to have, I don’t know if it was the loss to Dallas that took it out or everything caught up to us. But we didn’t’ seem to have life no matter who we put in.”
Eastern Conference all-star Dwyane Wade racked up a game-high 32 points – giving him exactly that average in four games (three wins, one loss) against Washington this season – and had 10 assists. Wade hit two of Miami’s four 3-pointers during a 22-4 run that gave them a 32-15 lead by the end of the first quarter.
By the fourth, in which Miami led by as many as 27 thanks to 57 percent shooting from the field (59 from 3-point range), Rafer Alston was launching halfcourt-length passes behind his back to Wade, who added to his half-dozen slam dunks after Michael Beasley (15 points) failed to connect cleanly for an alley oop.
“It hurt my ego,” said Andray Blatche, who came off the bench to lead the Wizards with 19 points and 11 points. “They came into our home laughing, dunking, just making it seem like we shouldn’t be on the same court. That should touch some people. It touched me, and that just made me want to play much harder than any player on the court because once a team comes on your court and wants to laugh and throw lobs and high-fiving, that’s like a smack in the face. That’s how I took it.”
Caron Butler and Randy Foye had 14 points apiece, but Antawn Jamison was held under double figures for the second straight game, finishing with 8 points and 5 rebounds on a night where he and Mike Miller (3 points) were donating $1,000 per point to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
“We’re fragile,” said Saunders, who two games before had entertained the idea of the Wizards making a run for the playoffs after two wins in a row. “We’re fragile both mentally, and I’m concerned from Twan’s standpoint, is how hard he’s played and some of the minutes he’s played, has that caught up to him a little bit.”
Said DeShawn Steveson; “We just got to stay focused and keep trucking. There’s nothing we can do. It can’t get any worse.”
Well, there are still 40 games left.
