The Washington Wizards and Danny Abdia broke the losing streak early Sunday morning with a 92-106 home win over the Detroit Pistons, but coach Scott Brooks still can’t be calm.
The Wizards, who climbed to a balance of 28:16, nearly dropped a 30-point lead in the third quarter against the weakest team in the East (33:12), which recorded its fourth straight loss. That same crash in the third quarter came just after Washington’s leading scorer, Bradley Bill (17 points in 21 minutes), was hit in the waist and did not return to the floor.
As for Avdia, after two games without points out of three games on a trip to New York last week, this time the 20-year-old forward scored 5 points (2/6 from the field, 1/3 from the three) and added 5 rebounds in 27 minutes. Abdia has this time, rarely in recent times, been given a place in the five of Brooks, who recently visited the Israeli due to his tendency to get involved in the offense problem. This time Abdia did not commit a single offense.
Washington took control of the game in the first quarter, which it finished with a 21:31 advantage. In the second quarter, the big escape came when Bill’s good ability gave the hosts a promising 41:68 advantage at the break. But early in the third quarter the turnaround came.
Bill was hit with a 46:74 lead, got off the floor and his teammates just lost direction. The Pistons began to run, sniping from three until the end of the quarter narrowed the gap to just 79:75, after completing a 5:31 run. Stunning.
Washington, which dropped a 17-point lead on the road to a loss to the New York Knicks just two days ago, did not want to let that scenario return. Garrison Matthews buried two important threes, Roy Chimura raised a level (14 points and 6 rebounds) and the Wizards returned to a double-digit lead en route to a 92-106 victory.
Russell Westbrook recorded another triple-double with 18 points (8/18 from the field), 19 rebounds and 10 assists. Also in the last game against the Knicks Russ dropped a respectable number of 18 rebounds. At Detroit, which lost injured Jeremy Grant (9 points) during the game, Wayne Ellington led the scoring list with 15 points on 5/10 of the three, most during his team’s crazy third quarter.
Washington, which has recorded only its second win in the last ten games, will play again at home on the night between Monday and Tuesday (2:00 a.m. Israel time), so it will host the Indiana Pacers.