New Wizards Are 2-0!

The new Washington Wizards are scrappy fighters and have won over the home fans in two straight wins, tonight topping the Denver Nuggets 107-97 at the Phone Booth. The win improves Washington's record to 19-33 and 11-16 at home.

First, the disclaimer: The Denver Nuggets were a tired team, having won an emotional overtime game in Cleveland against the Cavaliers last night. Back-to-back games on the road. Emotional win the night before. This was a classic trap/letdown game for the Nuggets and that's how it played out. Tired teams on the road frequently collapse in the fourth quarter, which is what happened to Denver tonight, after they led by 9 points after 3 quarters.

It was a true team effort by the Wizards tonight, as Head Coach Flip Saunders gave 9 players at least 20 minutes on the floor. Incredibly, it was the new guy, Al Thornton, who just got into town from Los Angeles this morning, who led the team with 32  minutes and 21 points. Wearing number 14, Thornton hit 7 of 12 shots, 7 of 9 free throws, grabbed 5 rebounds and led the team with 4 blocks. In the second half he repeatedly went toe-to-toe with Carmelo Anthony and held his own. He was the leader of a bench corps that outscored Denver's bench 52-14.

Josh Howard scored 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting and his +25 on/off court ratio was tops on the team and the only starter to have a positive court ratio. Another newcomer, power forward James Singleton, played center for much of the 4th quarter and played well, scoring 7 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.

Andray Blatche led the Wizards in the first half, scoring the team's firs 10 points and assisting on the next five. However, he picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter and never played at all in the final quarter. Still, he finished with 18 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Javale McGee showed a lot of hustle in grabbing 7 rebounds and blocking 3 shots in 20 minutes, but he took far too many shots [4-13 from the field] and doesn't seem to understand his role on offense yet. Since he has no go-to moves, McGee needs to focus on running the floor for fast break points and cleaning up off the offensive boards. He does both those things very well, but when he starts thinking of himself as a shooter, the offense gets into trouble. Coach Saunders will have to impress on McGee that he needs to control himself on offense and that it is not his job to score 20 points.

For the second straight game the Wizards had 20+ assists, out-dishing the Nuggets 22-12 in this one. The key was the fourth quarter, when Washington outscored Denver 34-15 and took control of the game in the last 4 minutes. Denver was tired and Saunders used a bench lineup [Nick Young, Earl Boykins, Thornton, Singleton] and Josh Howard to finish off the Nuggets. Young bounced back for a nice game, scoring 12 points on 5 of 9 shooting and posting a +18 court ratio.

Read more at

http://dcprosportsreport.com/articles/washington-wizards/new-wizards-are-2-0.html