I refuse to look backward or forward. With the way the Wizards played in their 107-97 win over Western Conference contender Denver — which had snapped the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 13-game winning streak the night before — with a group that barely knows one another and is still choking on the ashes from the volcanic eruption that blew up the team over the last week, the game deserves to be looked at entirely on its own merit.
That way, it’s just an entertaining and uplifting upset victory for a group of guys that were willing to work hard enough to make it happen.
How about the fourth quarter? It began ominously with Washington down by nine points, 82-73, and Earl Boykins getting a questionable foul call on what very well could’ve been a charge at midcourt by Chauncey Billups. Boykins took it personally, responding with a shimmy and slick 12-footer and then a finger roll in the lane.
In between Boykins’ buckets, James Singleton took to the skies for a massive rejection of J.R. Smith’s dunk attempt.
“That’s a brave person because J.R. Smith, you know he can jump a little bit,” said Nick Young.
“I just saw a teammate in trouble man,” said Singleton. “You do what’s natural.”
Indeed, it looked like the Wizards were more than comfortable simply playing for one another, with effort, sacrifice and unselfishness despite a host of still-new faces, including Al Thornton, who had only been in Washington from Los Angeles for 17 hours before suiting up for his new team and scoring a team-high 21 points.
“The disadvantage should be we got a lot of new pieces that we don’t know how to prepare for ourselves, to be an execution team,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “… It’s the group of guys and how hard we’re playing. When’s the last time you saw Nick Young diving on the floor for loose balls? That becomes contagious. When you see Al going after it on the glass or Josh Howard, as a teammate, you say I’ve got to get on board, and I think that’s what everybody’s done.”
After getting played – badly – on consecutive savvy veteran moves by Billups (game-high 28 points) that threatened to undo Washington’s comeback, Young stayed focused enough to draw a charge on the all-star point guard that clinched the contest with just under two minutes to play.
“That was for Dominic [McGuire] right there,” said Young, tallking about his traded teammate, one of only two locker room references to players who departed D.C. over the last seven days. “When you see guys out there playing hard, you can’t do nothing but join them.”
Moments before, Howard, who had 20 points in his first start as a Wizard, stepped on two front row beers heading out of bounds himself for a loose ball while guarding Kenyon Martin.
“I think those fans enjoyed that,” said Howard, who began the day denying reports in Dallas that he missed the Mavericks’ game against Washington on Jan. 20 because he was hung over. “Hoepfully that’ll make them come back for some more.”
So will strong performances by Andray Blatche, who scored the Wizards’ first 10 points of the night and had all 18 of his points in the first half as well as 11 rebounds and 3 assists. But watching Thornton limit all-star Carmelo Anthony (23 points) to zero points on 0 for 5 shooting in the fourth quarter (1 for 10 in the second half) did bring the Verizon Center crowd to its feet with under six minutes to play.
“When we got traded, we came in here with a positive attitude,” said Singleton. “You can’t hang your head down. You can’t come in having problems or a need to play. Al just got here today. You see how he progressed. Each guy that comes in here, we’ve got one goal in mind, that’s trying to win a championship and make this organization better.”
Okay, a championship might be a stretch, as would even be a playoff berth for a team that is still a half-dozen games out with 30 games left. But with a win that matched the Wizards’ total number of victories last season, Washington is beginning to put the first part of a dismal campaign behind it.
“We don’t play Andray or JaVale [McGee] down the stretch, yet those are the guys who are off of the bench cheering the whole time in the fourth quarter,” said Saunders. “We haven’t had that this year. It’s been the guys that are out on the floor and the guys that are on the bench. You have to have those things.”
Okay, in the end, I can’t resist talking about the past because its influence will haunt this group or propel it forward – and there I go talking about the future, too. (Did I mention that Antawn Jamison was 0 for 12 with two points in his Cleveland debut?)
“This is a big win for us, and we’re headed in the right direction,” said Mike Miller. “You saw how hard guys were playing and how excited guys were. That’s the sign of a good team.”
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