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Saturday, January 3, 2004
Wizards Win a Game...Seriously
Posted by WIZfan Webmaster
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (Ticker) -- Rookie Jarvis Hayes and the Washington Wizards used a balanced attack to snap a five-game losing streak.
Hayes scored 20 points and seven other Wizards scored at least eight en route to a 97-79 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
"The way we played tonight is the way we want to play all year," Hayes said. "We just kept offensive continuity with defensive pressure. We need to watch this game (on tape) every day from here on out if we ever get into a spell, because this is how we want to play."
Larry Hughes added 15 points and Jared Jefferies had 10 and 12 rebounds as the Wizards also snapped a two-game home skid.
Former Warrior Gilbert Arenas finished with nine points and nine rebounds in his first game against his former team.
"It was weird playing against your old teammates," Arenas said. "But it's just like when you go out and practice against each other. You're talking trash and hitting each other. It was fun."
Arenas was a 2001 second-round pick of Golden State. He saw limited action his rookie season but averaged 18.3 points last season and was named the NBA's Most Improved Player before signing a six-year, $64 million contract with Washington during the summer.
Jason Richardson scored 25 points for Golden State, which has lost four in a row overall and five straight on the road.
"When you're struggling, you've got to try to find a way to play a little harder," Warriors forward Clifford Robinson said. "And for us, we're struggling with our confidence right now, I think. We start off the game well. We play well in the first half. But as soon as a team makes a run, we get real passive."
Nick Van Exel's 3-pointer with 5:52 left in the third quarter gave the Warriors a 58-53 lead. But Washington closed the quarter with a 19-4 run to build a 72-62 advantage.
"That's been happening to us all year," Richardson said. "Teams go on runs, and we stop fighting."
"I thought we played very, very good defense," Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said. "We had a pretty good game plan and we just survived our own undoing for a couple of stretches there."
The Wizards outrebounded the Warriors, 58-36, and grabbed 24 offensive rebounds. Washington also held a scoring edge in the paint (48-28), on the fast break (23-10) and in second-chance opportunities (22-10).
"I think we got into an offensive flow pretty well, but it's our transition game that slows us down," Richardson said. "We had most of our turnovers in transition and it really hurt us."
Van Exel, bothered by a sore knee, scored nine points on 3-of-16 shooting and is 3-of-21 in his past two games.
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