» NBA Basketball » Wizards Unleash Offensive Stomping on the Nuggets, In a 120-91 Rout
Wizards Unleash Offensive Stomping on the Nuggets, In a 120-91 Rout
Story by: Erin zollars
Posted December 13, 2006
Photos by: Sol tucker
Washington, DC--
After fighting a tough game against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, the Wizards had some questions as to how their offense would perform after they were run from one end of the arena to the other by Yao Ming, checklist okay...
The Wizards came out tonight and were bound to ruin Carmelo Anthony's homecoming and they did so with another one, two punch that included a battle between Melo and Arenas. Anthony might have won the scoring battle with 37 points, but Arenas and his 34 points helped the Wizards rout the Nuggets, 120-91.
"We got off to a good start, we made shots and we beat them at their own game," said Arenas, who has scored at least 30 points in five straight games. "Because we knew that they like to play fast, we said right from the start, 'Let's attack them.' And that's what we did."
Again Arenas had plenty of help from his supporting cast of Caron Butler, 26 points and Antwan Jamison scored 19 pointed to pace the starters, who were left without Etan Thomas, who was out with his injury and had a banged up Brendan Haywood, who played one of his better games of the season with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
The Wizards built an 11-point lead with 4:28 remaining in the third quarter. This is as close as the Nuggets would come leading into the fourth quarter. A pair of three-pointers by Jamison, helped the Wizards take a 91-76 lead into the fourth quarter.
During the final three minutes of the fourth quarter, most of the Nuggets players including Anthony could only sit on the bench and watch as the Wizards reserves continued to hit the shots to increase the lead even more.
Washington will get a day of rest before they play the Wade and Shaq less Heat on Friday night, Wade who had his wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday, will not travel to Washington with the team.
Denver, who had won previously against Atlanta on tuesday, just did not have enough to control any part of the Wizards offense tonight and Anthony responded after the game with his thoughts of what happened.
"Yeah, we got embarrassed tonight. I can say that: We got embarrassed," said Anthony, No. 2 in the NBA in scoring, four spots ahead of Arenas. "The Wizards were able to do whatever they wanted to out there. They had every shot that they wanted: jump shots, layups. There wasn't really nothing that we could do tonight."
