The Wiz win ugly, but win

A Ritz cracker looks like a gourmet meal to a man who hadn’t had anything to eat in quite some time. And the Washington Wizards ugly 96-95 victory over the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday night, when all is say and done, may have been ugly, but was still a thing of beauty. Having lost their last four games the Wizards needed a victory in the worst way.

Getting a win was big, said Coach Eddie Jordan in his post-game press conference. However he added, “I’m not happy with some decisions; lost of composer out there from certain individuals . . . but that one unit (Gilbert Arenas, Antonio Daniels, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, Antawn Jamison, and Jarvis Hayes) defensively in the last two and half minutes really got it done. We shot ourselves in the foot on one end, but we gutted it out at the defensive end.”

In the last three minutes of the game the Wizards (5-9) clamped down defensively. After the Hawks’ Joe Johnson hit an eight-foot jumper to tie the game 93-93, the Wizards forced three turnovers and allowed the Hawks (5-7) to score just one bucket. After pulling ahead of the Hawks 96-93, ex-Wizards, Tyron Lue hit a 15-foot jumper with :50.5 seconds on the game clock to bring his team within one point. Arenas then charged with an offensive foul, gave the Hawks an opportunity to re-claim the lead with :38.4 seconds.

Johnson, who finished the game with 33 points and eight assists, with at least two Wizards halting his penetration into the paint, passed out of the double-team to Josh Smith waiting uncontested at the 3-point arc. Smith, 3-of-16 from the field, missed the opened 3-point shot causing a mad scramble for possession of the ball. Hayes, in his attempt to gain possession, kicked the ball and was called for a back court violation. With about five seconds remaining, Johnson guarded closely by Hayes, shot and missed an 18-footer that had Jordan holding his breath during the press conference. “I’m still trying to catch my breath,” Jordan said.

Arenas, along with Butler led the Wizards in scoring with 21 points, committed nine of the Wizards 20 turnovers. “Gil with nine turnovers doesn’t make me happy,” said Jordan. Butler, who shot poorly from the field (3-of-10), converted all 15 of his free throws. The feat tied a franchise record for the number of attempts made without a miss and was a career high for Butler.

“I am just trying to stay aggressive, trying to stay consistent,” Butler said. “My teammates are finding me in the flow, (and I'm) getting hacked and going to the foul line and just making shots.”

“[Caron] did it in different ways; back down dribbles, drives, quick takes – I think some put backs, [and] offensive rebounds," said Jordan of Butler's frequent visits to the charity stripe. "He was just going to the body. He saw a match-up where he could use his quickness . . . he was quicker than anybody that was defending him.”

In addition to the 20 turnovers, the Wizards missed a lot of shots. “We missed a lot of open shots,” said Jordan. “You say, ‘geez, how can we miss open shots like that – you know.’ But I’m glad it ended the way that it did.”