Washington Wizards Blog

By Zack Bolno, Wizards PR Director

The Washington Wizards can point to the second half as the reason for their third consecutive loss in the Las Vegas Summer League.

The latest example occurred on Friday night when the Wizards led by as many as 17 points in the first half, only to be outscored by Houston in the third quarter, 32-14, en route to a 74-69 loss to the Rockets.

Washington (0-3) has lost nine consecutive summer league games in Las Vegas and has not won in the ‘Sin City’ since July, 2005. The loss came on the heals of a career-best performance from Wizards forward Oleksiy Pecherov, who finished with game-highs in points (26) and rebounds (14).

“Something has happened with our team in the second half,” Pecherov said. “We don’t have the same focus and the same energy as we do in the first half.”

The Wizards opened the game with a 17-4 lead on the Rockets. Pecherov had nine of the Wizards’ first 11 points and it looked as if Washington was poised to win its first game of the summer league. Pecherov, meanwhile, finished with 17 points and nine rebounds in the first half as the Wizards ended the half on a promising 10-2 run to lead 38-21.

But once again, Washington struggled after the intermission. Houston went on an impressive 19-3 run and tied the game at 44 midway through the third quarter. Carl English’s jumper gave Houston its first lead of the contest with 49 seconds remaining in the third quarter - a lead built by some torrid three-point shooting by the Rockets (8-of-17, 47.1%).

First round draft pick Aaron Brooks, who had 17 of his team-high 23 points in the second half, helped Houston built a six-point lead (64-58) with a little more than three minutes remaining. The Wizards, however, rallied and went on 7-0 run of their own to take a 65-64 lead after a Pecherov jumper. But Brooks and second-round draft pick Carl Landry (12 points and seven rebounds) each made one of their two free throw attempts and second-year center Steve Novak (17 points) connected on a three-pointer to cap off the comeback victory.

Houston (2-1) has now won 12 of its last 13 summer league games and will play Sacramento on Saturday. Washington’s next game against Cleveland on Saturday will be shown on tape delay at 10:30 p.m. EDT on Comcast SportsNet.

NOTES

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Wizards fan Aaron Gordon, 33, who resides in Los Angeles, watched the game against the Rockets from the stands in his No. 3 Wizards jersey. Gordon, who grew up in Washington, D.C., had a Wizards hat and a Washington Bullets jersey placed on the row in front of him.

Gordon said his favorite current Wizards player is Caron Butler, but that Dominic McGuire has really impressed him. He also raved about Nick Young. Gordon said he had the opportunity to see Young’s new documentary a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles and came away very impressed. Gordon described Young “as fantastic young talent, who has great character and is very personable.”