Youthful Wizards lose to Memphis Grizzlies, finally experience some growing pains

The revised Washington Wizards remain a team under modification, with the many new additions trying to establish continuity and comfort with the holdovers. Part of that evolution invariably includes snags like Wednesday's 99-94 loss to the visiting Memphis Grizzlies.

A poor start to the fourth quarter was the Wizards' undoing, with Memphis using a 13-2 run to pull away and halt Washington's home winning streak at three games. The Wizards also lost for second time in five games since a roster overhaul that included the departure of former all-stars Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler as well as steady center Brendan Haywood.

Among the arrivals for the Wizards (20-35) via those moves was Josh Howard, who through his first three games with the team had been averaging 17 points and four rebounds before tearing his ACL in Monday's 101-95 victory over Chicago. That season-ending injury clearly affected the fluidity of the offense against the Grizzlies (29-28), even though they were playing the second of back-to-back games.

For a fifth consecutive game, Andray Blatche led the Wizards in scoring. The 6-foot-11 forward had a game-high 24 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, but scored just eight after halftime. Al Thornton, another newcomer, had 16 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in his fourth game since joining Washington from the Los Angeles Clippers in a three-team deal.

"What we miss is we miss another option," Wizards Coach Flip Saunders said. "What happens is when you lose a player, any player, everyone steps into different roles. . . . It puts different pressures on us to learn things. We had a terrible stretch in the fourth quarter, and [Blatche] had a bad stretch in the third. Dray's going through a learning process, and like I talked to the team, now what happens, when you've got a guy carrying your team at times, you think you've got to do it all the time. When we start doing that, that's when we start getting into problems."

A major headache for Washington was Memphis second-year center Marc Gasol, who had his way with Wizards counterpart JaVale McGee, especially early in the game. Gasol finished with 20 points and made 10 of 11 shots to go along with seven rebounds.

Memphis's Zach Randolph had 22 points and nine rebounds, both team highs, and Rudy Gay added 20 points and seven rebounds.

Trailing 92-76 with 4 minutes 31 seconds to play, the Wizards made Memphis work a bit down the stretch, but despite drawing to six points with 21 seconds to play, their deficit early in the final period proved too much to overcome.

"We gave up way too many easy points," Thornton said. "They scored easy. We didn't make it tough on them, and they just got to our basket at will with layups and dunks."

The Wizards did retaliate in the second quarter when Memphis appeared headed for a double-figure lead, with Nick Young providing a highlight-reel dunk that brought much of the announced 11,875 at Verizon Center out of their seats. With his team down 33-24 after a timeout 10:42 before halftime, Young gathered the ball on the right side near the three-point arc and drove along the baseline. From there he elevated with the ball held high in his right hand and shook the rim with a dunk over 7-2 reserve center Hamed Haddadi.

That prompted the Grizzlies to call timeout, but momentum remained with the Wizards after the stoppage. Clearly energized from Young's emphatic basket, Washington scored 10 of the next 11 points, all courtesy of Blatche and Young, to take a 36-34 lead with 5:27 to go before intermission.

Blatche also drew hearty approval from the crowd late in the first quarter when he hurried from one baseline to the other end of the court, shedding his headband in full stride along the front row of seats, and tried to block a shot.