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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Denver Nuggets coach Dan Issel wants the ball
in Nick Van Exel's hands with games on the line.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Issel said after
Van Exel scored Denver's final eight points Saturday night to lift
the Nuggets to a 105-100 victory over the Washington Wizards.
"When the game is on the line, I don't think there's anybody in
the league better than Nick with the basketball."
Van Exel hit a 3-pointer to give Denver a 102-98 lead with 40.8 seconds remaining, then drove for a three-point play with 12.6 left to secure the victory.
"He's unbelievable," Issel said. "We've seen him do it time and time again. He hits a 3-pointer and then isolates himself and gets the three-point play.
"He's the best. To take big shots like that you have to be willing to live with the failure if they don't go again. That's Nick's attitude, he wants to take them. If they don't go in he can live with being the goat, but more often than not he ends up being the hero."
Van Exel, who finished with 23 points and 11 assists, led four
Denver starters who posted double-doubles as the Nuggets snapped a
three-game losing streak. Antonio McDyess, who said he "never got
a feel for the game," scored 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.
Raef LaFrentz had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and James Posey added
13 points and 10 boards.
"We needed somebody to step up, and coach called my number a
couple times and I made the shots tonight," Van Exel said.
"Defensively we stepped up in the fourth quarter, which is
something we haven't been doing. Teams have been putting up 30 on
us in that fourth quarter.
"Tonight we shut them down," he said of holding the Wizards to 14 fourth-quarter points. "Defense is going to win games for us on the road, we've just got to understand that. Those stops were big."
Point guard Chris Whitney led Washington with 24 points but had only two assists. Rod Strickland sat the game out with sore
hamstrings. Juwan Howard and Richard Hamilton each scored 18
points, and Michael Smith grabbed a season-high 16 rebounds -- two shy of his career-high.
After Jahidi White's layup gave Washington a 92-88 lead, McDyess had two monster dunks during an 8-0 run that gave Denver a 96-92 lead with 5:02 left. The Nuggets never trailed again.
Mitch Richmond pulled the Wizards to 99-98 on a 3-pointer with 1:03 remaining, but Washington failed to score in the final minute.
"We've been doing pretty good, but we're not finishing our games these last couple," Whitney said. "We've let them get away from us, but we're going to rectify that this week against Orlando."
The Nuggets hadn't won on the road against an Eastern Conference team since March 29, 2000, when they defeated the Wizards. They're 3-0 against the Wizards at MCI Center since it opened in December of 1997.
"Hopefully, we get to play them again here," Van Exel said
with a grin. "But we don't. Some teams you have a lot more
confidence over and you seem to play well against them. We match up
with them pretty well, and defensively we take that challenge to
knock them down."
Hamilton scored eight of the Wizards' first 12 points of the
third quarter, including a jumper for a 66-64 lead with 7:24 left.
Whitney closed the quarter with a jumper and two free throws to
give the Wizards an 86-78 lead after three.
"We fought and competed very, very hard," Wizards coach
Leonard Hamilton said. "And we still came up a little short. I
continue to sound like I'm repeating myself each game because they
are giving good effort.
"Your heart beats for our guys because they did all the little
things. They put ourselves in position to win games."
Despite being outshot 52 percent to 39 percent in the first
half, Hamilton pulled the Wizards to a 54-54 tie on a desperation
3-point buzzer-beater to end the second quarter.
The Nuggets bolted to an early 8-0 lead as the Wizards missed
their first nine shots. Van Exel, who scored 13 first-quarter
points, gave Denver an early 15-4 lead.
The Wizards answered with their own 15-4 run, highlighted by Whitney's two 3-pointers, for a 19-19 tie on Howard's hook with 3:02 remaining in the first.
Denver regained the lead, 45-42, on Posey's high-rise slam over Richmond for a three-point play with 4:13 left in the second quarter.
Game notes
Strickland, after missing 13 games because of hamstring
soreness and tendinitis in his shoulder, had 24 points and 20
assists in 68 minutes over the previous four games before returning
to the bench Saturday night. Strickland arrived in street clothes
during the first quarter to join his teammates on the bench. . .
The Wizards will sandwich a five-game road trip around playing host
to NBA All-Star Weekend Feb. 9-11 at MCI Center. They travel to
Orlando for a game Wednesday night, return to Washington for the
break, then embark for Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Denver.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Denver Clubhouse
Washington Clubhouse
Van Exel claims referee Javie has it in for him
RECAPS
Minnesota 108
Toronto 105
Denver 105
Washington 100
Detroit 88
Cleveland 81
Orlando 96
Atlanta 84
Dallas 101
Golden State 95
Milwaukee 104
Indiana 85
San Antonio 90
Houston 88
Utah 111
Seattle 91
Vancouver 91
Chicago 84
LA Clippers 90
Portland 89
FROM
ATHLETESDIRECT
Juwan Howard Official Site
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