Jamal Crawford led the Clippers with 28 points and former Wizard Caron Butler had 15, making a driving layup that brought the Clippers within 80-79 with 5 minutes 39 seconds remaining. The Wizards made 2 of 4 free throws on their next two trips down the floor, but Nene rebounded his second miss and Ariza ended the possession with a huge three-pointer.
Temple hit a long jumper and Bledsoe later found DeAndre Jordan (seven points, 22 rebounds) for an alley-oop dunk. Wall missed 12 of his 18 field goal attempts, but he put the game away with a pull-up jumper and his jam after Temple’s steal.
“I know we’re a capable team that can beat a lot of teams if we do what we’re supposed to. We’ve got to work together. We just had to trust each other,” said Wall, who now has wins against every team in the league except Dallas, Golden State, Phoenix, San Antonio and New York, the Wizards’ opponent at home on Wednesday. “Since everybody came back healthy and I came back, a lot of teams start respecting us more. It’s great to finally win.”
The Wizards were once again without rookie Bradley Beal, who missed his fourth consecutive game with a sprained right wrist. The offense had sputtered since Beal was injured on a hard foul in Denver nearly two weeks ago, failing to reach 90 points — and averaging just 82 — during a winless three-game road trip through Philadelphia, Memphis and San Antonio.
Wittman said the Wizards needed to focus more on moving the ball and moving without the ball to generate more points within the offense. He was pleased to see the Wizards record 27 assists on Monday, but the occasional lulls drove him mad at times.
“Wasn’t the prettiest, but we’ll take it, definitely,” Wittman said. “If wasn’t artistic for us. We still had ups and downs from an offensive standpoint, where we just stopped passing. Dribble, no movement. We’ve got to continue to work with that. Learn from that. If my forehead’s red, it’s from banging a wall.”
But Wittman said it with a smile, because the Wizards got the win.
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