In his last appearance in DC as a player, 37 year old Dwyane Wade not only put on a show but proved to be the difference down the stretch of the game. Washington (30-44) and Miami (36-37) came in both fighting for their playoff lives, yet, the Heat walked out victorious, defeating the Wizards 113-108. Wade scored 11 of his team high 20 points in the fourth quarter while also grabbing 9 rebounds and dishing out 5 assist as chants of M-V-P echoed throughout Capital One. Jeff Green posted a game high 25 points and 6 rebounds on 9-12 shooting in 24 minutes of action off the bench to pace Washington, who has lost four straight.
Washington and Miami went back and forth throughout the game with each team building double digits leads at points in the game, however, crunch time execution proved to be the difference. Washington was outscored 35-29 in the fourth, allowing the Heat to shoot 61 percent in the period. The Wizards shot 52 percent in the final period which was good enough to win, although, they issue that has plagued this team throughout the season was once again the issue in a loss to Miami, they couldn’t get stops when they needed to.
“They pretty much beat us. They beat us in every way possible,” Wizards all-star guard Brad Beal said. “Off the dribble, three balls, offensive rebounds, everything that we said that they were going to beat us in, they pretty much did. We felt good early controlling the tempo. I think we kind of got out of that. They went on their run in the second half, and kind of took over from there.
Thomas Bryant added a double double with 17 points, 11 rebounds while Beal contributed 16 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assist for the Wizards. Heat guard Dion Waiters who was efficient all night posted 19 points on 7-13 shooting while center Bam Adebayo added a near triple double, 16 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assist and 4 blocks.
The Wizards begin a four game road trip, taking on the Lakers Tuesday while Miami will host Orlando this upcoming Tuesday.
