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Wednesday, Mar. 29 7:00pm ET
Van Exel scores 26 in second half | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the third quarter of a sleepy, low-intensity game between two losing teams, Nick Van Exel woke up. After missing all seven of his shots in the first half, Van Exel led a 16-0 run and finished with 26 points as the Denver Nuggets defeated the Washington Wizards 101-93 Wednesday night. "I told Nick at halftime what Frank Ramsey told me in my rookie year: 'If you are a shooter and you miss five in a row, you have to believe the next five are going in,' " said coach Dan Issel, tossing in a rare reference to his playing days with the Kentucky Colonels of the old ABA. Rookie James Posey scored a career-high 25 points and matched a career high with nine rebounds, and Antonio McDyess had 24 points and 12 rebounds on two bad ankles as the Nuggets salvaged a 2-2 record from their four-game road trip. Posey scored 11 points in the fourth quarter. He finished 6-for-10 from the field, including 3-for-6 from 3-point range, and made all 10 of his free throws. He was 4-for-4 from the line in the game's final minute, keeping the Wizards at bay. "Everybody's been telling him to shoot the ball," Van Exel said. "When you play that two guard, we depend on you to score. I don't know if he realizes that yet. As of late, if he has an open shot, he has knocked it down." Mitch Richmond scored 22 points for the Wizards, whose late-season surge hit a serious roadblock with a 36 percent shooting performance. Washington lost despite taking 25 more shots -- 91 to 66 -- than Denver and making 33 field goals to Denver's 32. Juwan Howard was 4-for-12, Chris Whitney 6-for-19 and Tracy Murray 2-for-11. "We didn't make shots. You've got to make some shots to win the basketball game," coach Darrell Walker said. "Coach can't shoot. Coach can't shoot." The Wizards, who had won five of their previous six, led 60-52 with 5:55 to go in the third quarter when Van Exel started the 16-0 spurt with a 21-foot jumper. By the time the run was over, Van Exel had added a 3-pointer, a fadeaway 19-foot jumper at the shot clock buzzer and a pair of free throws to make the score 68-60. He didn't stop there. Van Exel put back an offensive rebound on a fast break later in the period, then hit another shot clock buzzer-beater and a 19-foot fadeaway in the fourth. His drive to the basket gave the Nuggets their first 10-point lead at 91-81 with 2:32 to play. Van Exel scored 16 points in the third quarter and 10 in the fourth, making 9 of 17 shots in the second half. He also went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line and finished with seven rebounds and eight assists. "Nick got hot, very hot," Walker said. "Give him his due, when he wants to play and get it done, he can get it done." Game notesThe Nuggets are 8-7 against the teams with the six worst records in NBA, including 1-1 vs. the Wizards. ... The Wizards, 9-7 in March, will need to beat Boston on Friday to get their first 10-win month in more than two years. They went 11-7 in December 1997, the month the MCI Center opened. ... Washington and Denver play only twice during the season, and they got it done in less than a week. The Wizards beat the Nuggets 100-86 in Denver last Thursday. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Denver Clubhouse Washington Clubhouse RECAPS Denver 101 Washington 93
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