Wizards follow another big win with another baffling loss
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Version 0 of 1. Washington Wizards Coach Randy Wittman took his seat at the podium Wednesday night moments after his team had suffered a familiar 109-103 loss to the Houston Rockets. He could not explain why the Wizards had gone on the road to defeat top-notch Eastern Conference contenders only to come home to Verizon Center and become an unrecognizable group. It has happened twice inside a week, and Wittman knows it is troubling. “At home, for whatever reason, we come out and play too cool, too soft,” Wittman said. “It happens almost every home game.” After toppling the Miami Heat, then the East’s first-place club, in South Florida on Monday, the Wizards, rested from a day off, came out flat and fell behind by 15 points in the first half to a Rockets team coming off a loss to the awful Brooklyn Nets 24 hours earlier. Washington stormed back with a 24-6 run fueled by a series of defensive stops in the third quarter to claim a six-point lead, then fizzled down the stretch. It was reminiscent of the Wizards’ effort exactly a week earlier, when they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, then atop the conference, and found a way to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers, a team that had accrued just two victories, and another example of Washington’s mystifying inconsistency. “We didn’t change any strategy at halftime from a defensive standpoint,” said Wittman, whose team hasn’t won consecutive games in nearly three weeks. “We got tougher. We hit them, and we got after it. The tide turned right away in the third quarter. We do that at the start off the game, you never know with a team coming off a back to back what they might feel. ‘Oh, shoot we don’t have a chance tonight.’ But we’ve given teams courage to say, ‘Oh, they don’t want to play tonight.’ And then we almost have to play a perfect game to win the game.” Washington (9-11) discovered spotting a 15-point lead to a team with James Harden — even one underachieving as Houston has this season — makes things much tougher. The southpaw guard made 13 of 23 shots en route to 42 points to go with nine rebounds and seven assists as Houston won its fourth game in five days and improved to 7-5 since Coach J.B. Bickerstaff took over for the fired Kevin McHale. The Rockets were without former Wizard Trevor Ariza, who was sidelined with a back injury. John Wall led the Wizards with 26 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds as their five starters each scored in double figures. Marcin Gortat tallied 18 points and 13 rebounds in his return from three-game absence to tend to his ailing mother in Poland. [Gortat makes his return to Wizards against Rockets] Bradley Beal, who drew the difficult matchup against Harden, scored 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting and committed seven of Washington’s 18 turnovers. “He played not aggressive, too soft,” Wittman said of Beal. “That’s what happens. You get seven turnovers.” Washington, which fell to 4-7 at home, had Gortat back but still featured a depleted front line without Kris Humphries (ankle), Nene (calf) and Drew Gooden III (calf). Yet they outscored Houston 54-38 in the paint and 16-6 on second-chance opportunities, but shot just 5 for 25 from three-point range as the Rockets (11-12) connected on 12 of 33 tries from beyond the arc. “It’s a roller coaster,” Wall said. “We have to find a way to win a few games in a row, and once we do that, we’re back in the Eastern Conference. If we don’t do that, we’ll be at the bottom.” [For Wall, December has been the most wonderful time of the year] After taking a nine-point lead to halftime, four quick Rockets points to begin the third quarter stretched the gulf to 13 points and signaled a long night for the Wizards. Instead, Washington’s defense intensified. Ball pressure peaked, and Houston began turning over the ball. The Rockets went scoreless for more than five minutes, committing five turnovers during the stretch, and the Wizards capitalized with 13-0 spurt capped off by a fast-break alley-oop from Beal to Wall ignited by Wall blocking Harden’s jumper. Houston scored four straight points to halt the drought but Wall continued conducting the Wizards’ blitz, which reached 24-6, by toying with the Rockets’ defense to help build a six-point Washington lead. He had 10 points and five assists in the third period alone. Harden, however, fired back a response, scoring 14 of the Rockets’ final 16 points as Houston regrouped to cut the deficit to one heading into the fourth quarter. Washington widened the gap to 91-85, but the momentum shifted when Gary Neal’s transition three-pointer rimmed out with 8:50 remaining. From there, the Rockets executed down the stretch, outscoring the Wizards 24-12, ending the game much like how it began. “I’m getting tired of having to come into halftime and light a fire under this team,” Wittman said. |