And when he stepped on the same court where John Stockton and later Deron Williams once ran the show, Wall took it upon himself to make sure that the Wizards wouldn’t finish the season by matching the worst regular season road record in NBA history. Wall did his part in the first half, scoring 24 of his game-high 28 points, but the Wizards needed Jordan Crawford and Maurice Evans — the two remaining players from the Kirk Hinrich trade with Atlanta — to finish off the Utah Jazz as they won on the road for the just the second time this season, 100-95, in overtime.
“We got tired of hearing about it before we won one. To get the second one, we know we’re going to hear about it again,” Wall said after the Wizards (18-55) improved to 2-35 with a roller coaster victory at Energy Solutions Arena. The victory helped the Wizards avoid tying the NBA record for fewest road wins with the 1990-91 Sacramento Kings, who went 1-40 on the road. “It was great. We didn’t want to go in the record books as that.”
Crawford scored 25 points, forcing overtime with a baseline jumper with 4.4 seconds left and then getting two steals and scoring the first four points of the extra frame. The Wizards also snapped a four-game losing streak and finished this five-game West Coast road trip at 1-4. Evans, starting in place of the injured Nick Young, added 12 points, with seven coming in the overtime.
JaVale McGee had 11 points and 17 rebounds a night after getting a career-high 28 points and matched his career high with 18 rebounds the night before against the Warriors. And Othyus Jeffers, who signed a second 10-day contract the day before and played in Utah last season, helped the Wizards get a win against his former team as he had six rebounds, including five offensive, and played solid defense off the bench.
“It was a great team effort,” Crawford said. “I really feel every time we come into a gym, we got to get a win. We only have [18] wins — every game has to be a win.”
The Wizards appeared set to win the game in regulation when Crawford made a pull-up jumper to give his team an 82-73 lead with 7 minutes 35 seconds left and Wall, who played 50 minutes, getting a rare breather on the bench. But they were unable to make a field goal for the next seven minutes and the Jazz took advantage, going on a 12-1 run to take an 85-83 lead with 14 seconds remaining.
Coach Flip Saunders drew up a play for Crawford out of the timeout and the rookie knocked down the jumper, ending the scoring drought. “They gave it to me,” Crawford said. “I felt I had to come through. Luckily I did.”
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