JaVale McGee stood under the basket and appear to contemplate for a brief moment: Was leaping up in the second quarter to grab a half-court alley-oop pass from John Wall – over the outstretched arms of Blake Griffin – and dunking it, as he had just done, enough compensation for losing the slam dunk contest last month?
Maybe not, but similar to the Wizards’ only briefly competitive 122-101 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, it would have to do because like the team he plays for, McGee’s upper hand Saturday night lasted only a moment.
The rest of the evening belonged to Griffin, who racked up a game-high 26 points without even playing in the final quarter, which meant there was little down the stretch for the fourth sellout crowd of the season at Verizon Center to cheer about: Griffin’s star turn was over, and the undermanned and adrenaline-spent Wizards were well on their way to another blowout defeat.
“Blake’s a phenomenal player,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “He puts so much pressure on you. He’s got great strength. He’s phenomenal in the open floor.”
Ironically, McGee (12 points, eight rebounds) finished the night with more dunks (four) than Griffin (two), starting with a slam on the game’s first possession. But the remainder of the period belonged to the Clippers forward, who exploited any defender thrown his way. By the time he had spun past McGee for a layup, drawn multiple fouls from Trevor Booker – going 8 for 9 at the line in the period – and made a jumper over Yi Jianlian, Griffin was holding sway over the Wizards and the officials, with 16 points of the Clippers’ 29-13 lead, which was 38-27 by the end of the period, the most points Washington allowed in a first quarter all year.
“It was tough,” said Booker. “Just some of the calls, they got me down, and then they just kept going to Blake, kept going to Blake.”
While DeAndre Jordan piled up 17 rebounds and 10 points and Chris Kaman added 14 points for the dominant Los Angeles frontcourt, Booker and Yi racked up five fouls a piece and didn’t score a single point until the fourth quarter, when Booker got all of his 13 points with the game already well out of reach.
Without Andray Blatche (shoulder) and Rashard Lewis (knee) and with a less than 100 percent Nick Young, who played despite a bum left knee, the Wizards could muster only enough energy to keep the game from getting out of hand until the third quarter.
“I was dragging it,” said Young, who had 11 of his 15 points in the first half. “I was trying to tell coach. But I know they needed me so I was just trying my best to be out there, trying to make something happen.”
McGee finished his alley oop and another putback dunk, and Jordan Crawford chipped in 12 of his 16 points in the second quarter as the Wizards clawed back from 19 down to go into halftime behind, 64-55. Wall (25 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) led the charge, getting the rim for most of his 19 first-half points and sparking a near comeback immediately after the break, with a jumper and two free throws that got Washington back to 68-65.
But the Clippers (26-41) simply found another gear, using a 14-2 run that included seven consecutive points from Mo Williams (22 points) to send the Wizards (16-48) to their third loss in a row and 19th in their last 22 contests.
Eric Bledsoe ran wild on the break late in the third quarter, setting up Jordan and himself for slams and Al-Farouq Aminu (14 points) for easy points, and then scoring 17 of his career-high 23 points during the extended garbage time in the final period to finish with nearly as many points as Wall, his former Kentucky teammate.
“Once they started getting dunks,” said Wall, “we dropped our heads, and they just took our heart away from us.”
