Crawford leads as lowly Wizards cool down Heat

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

Washington guard Jordan Crawford had 22 points to lead the Wizards to their only second win in the National Basketball Association (NBA) season. AFP photo

The Washington Wizards posted just their second win of the NBA season on Dec. 4, overcoming a triple-double by Miami’s LeBron James to stun the reigning champion Heat 105-101.

Jordan Crawford scored 22 points and Kevin Seraphin scored 16 points with 10 rebounds as the Wizards notched their third straight victory over the Heat -- a streak dating back to late last season.
A.J. Price added 14 points and Martell Webster scored 13 off the bench for the Wizards, who went into the contest with a league-worst 1-13 record. They started the season with 12 straight defeats before posting a two-point win over Portland last week.

James led all scorers with 26 points and added 13 rebounds and 11 assists. However, he missed two three-point attempts late in the fourth quarter.

The Heat never led after the first quarter and saw their six-game winning streak end.

Dwyane Wade finished with 24 points in defeat for Miami, with Chris Bosh putting up 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Fighting back

The Heat, trailing by as many as 12 points in the third period, began to whittle the deficit, and Bosh’s layup with 6:48 left to play knotted the score at 88-88.

The Wizards, however, held on. Webster’s three-pointer made it 93-89 with six minutes remaining.
After James’s three-point attempt failed, Crawford made one of two from the free throw line to give Washington a 102-99 lead with 10.3 seconds left.

Crawford made two more free throws to give Washington a three-point lead, 104-101. James was off-target again with a three-pointer in the waning seconds that would have forced overtime.

“It feels good to pull out a win, to know that all the hard work is finally coming through,” he said. “We did a great job of switching some things up and had Miami guessing a little bit.”

Wizards coach Randy Wittman was delighted that his players were able to come through against a high-profile opponent.

“I’m so happy for those guys,” Wittman said.

Crawford, however, cautioned that the Wizards still have work to do to turn around their season.“It’s just a win,” he said. “Now we’ve got two wins. Let’s get some more.”