The San Antonio Spurs may have had a warm welcome to the nation's capital with a visit to the White House and an opportunity to meet with President Obama, but they will leave with a sour taste in their mouths after falling to the Washington Wizards, 101-93.
After getting thrashed on the road by the Atlanta Hawks, the Wizards responded with one of their most impressive victories of the season. From start to finish, Washington looked like the better team tonight.
"It was a combination of things, I thought the last five minutes of the game we were pretty locked in defensively. It was night and day from Atlanta to here in our ball movement and player movement all game long," said Wizards' head coach Randy Wittman. "When we do that it is really nice to look."
John Wall continued to prove why he is the number one point guard in the NBA Eastern conference All-Star voting, finishing with 25 points and eight assists. Wall exploited the Spurs' defense using an arsenal of moves, highlighted by his multiple use of a one handed floater.
"It was great. We knew we had to play team basketball and move the ball, get stops in the fourth quarter and not turn the ball over, and we did that," said Wall.
The Spurs were still without the services of Kawhi Leonard, who is inching closer to returning from a torn ligament in his right hand. San Antonio had five players reach double digits in scoring and had 26 total team assists.
With just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Spurs were able to take the lead, 87-86, with a finger roll from forward Boris Diaw. After a road trip that saw the Wizards inability to finish out close games against elite teams, Washington changed the narrative.
The Wizards outscored the Spurs 14-7 to close out the game and snap a 17-game losing streak to a team that has seemingly owned Washington for a decade.
It was November 2005 when Washington last defeated the Spurs. In that game, Gilbert Arenas carried the Wizards with 43 points. To put it into perspective, John Wall was a sophomore in high school, while Bradley Beal was finishing up middle school.
With the game going back and forth in waning minutes, one Wizard played the best quarter of his career. Backup big man Kevin Seraphin finished the game with a season-high 17 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter.
"Kevin can do that. He has developed. I have total faith in him, leaving him late in games. This is another building block for him hopefully that he can use this as a spring board," said Wittman.
Kris Humphries continued to provide quality minutes off the bench as well, finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds, and one ferocious block on Tony Parker. Bradley Beal and Paul Pierce scored 13 apiece.
"This team goes as far as our bench takes us. Sometimes our starters don't play well, but our bench has to play big for us and tonight we needed them to play that way, and they came out with a lot of energy," said Wall.
In what was a complete team win, the Wizards improved their home record to 17-4 on the season and 26-12 overall. Washington will have little time to celebrate, as they travel to Chicago to take on the Bulls tomorrow.