Pacers rally from big deficit to ruin Nene’s home debut The Wizards were playing their own version of the beautiful game early in Brazilian center Nene’s home debut.
But they weren’t able to maintain the high level of play, and a shocking meltdown in the final minutes resulted in a 85-83 loss to Indiana at Verizon Center. The Wizards blew a 22-point first-half lead in part because they were bogged down by poor 3-point shooting (5-for-18) and turned the ball over 17 times.
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Nene’s baseline slam gave Washington a 83-77 lead with 2:31 remaining in the game, but the Wizards never scored again. Instead, after Paul George (13 points, four steals) hit a 3-pointer to give the Pacers (27-18) their first lead of the game at 84-83 with 1:01 left, Nene’s lazy inbounds pass was swiped by Darren Collison, and Indiana snared three offensive rebounds to keep the ball out of Washington’s hands.
The Wizards (11-35) got the ball back with 9.5 seconds left, but John Wall (16 points, nine assists) was still going through his shooting motion to release a 12-foot floater when the final buzzer sounded.
Former Georgetown center Roy Hibbert scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half and had nine rebounds for the Pacers, who also got 15 of 16 points from Danny Granger after the break.
As he did in his first Wizards game the night before in New Jersey, Nene (six points, five rebounds) won the opening tip in his first appearance in a Washington jersey at home. After Chris Singleton (career high-matching 16 points) opened the scoring, the veteran center, acquired in a trade that ended the Washington tenures of Nick Young and JaVale McGee, put his attentive passing skills on display.
Only one of Nene’s sizeable hands is needed to kick out the ball, and he found Jordan Crawford (game-high 21 points, five assists, three steals) for a 3-pointer, the second of eight assisted shots in a row to start the game for the Wizards, who shot 62 percent in the first quarter.
Though a three-game-in-three-nights stretch starts Saturday, Washington didn’t hold anything in reserve early. With Crawford making six of his first seven shots and stepping into passing lanes for a pair of steals, the Wizards racked up 14 fast-break points and reeled off a 13-4 run to end the first quarter ahead 34-18. They would finish, however, shooting just 42 percent.
Indiana didn’t hit its first field goal of the second quarter until Collison’s 3-pointer with 5:33 left before halftime, and the Wizards had a 51-31 advantage at the break, matching their largest halftime lead and the Pacers’ lowest scoring half of the year.
Trevor Booker threw down a powerful left-handed slam over Hibbert to make the score 55-36, but Granger answered with two free throws and his first three shots of the game, all in a row, during a 15-2 that cut Washington’s lead to 57-51.
Wall did his best to preserve the advantage, cleaning up his own miss to find Kevin Seraphin (eight points) for second-chance points in the lane, then crossing over his defender and lofting the ball over the defense to Seraphin for a soft lay-in alley oop. But he finished the night failing to hit shots at the end of three of the four quarters.
