Photo by Brian Allen
Wizards 104, Heat (lol) 70: Subtract Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh and it turns out the Miami Heat are pretty beatable. In fact, they’re awful. The Wizards romped all over Miami last night to end their otherwise abysmal 2011-2012 season on a six-game winning streak. But the Heat, after all, are headed to the playoffs and their key talent wanted the day off to be rested for when James inevitably comes up short in the final seconds of a deciding game.
Looking back on the 20-46 season, the Post’s Michael Lee writes that lousy team chemistry hamstrung the Wizards at the outset. It wasn’t until they fired coach Flip Saunders, traded away JaVale McGee, confined Andray Blatche and “brought credibility to the locker room” by adding Nene. Still, they finished with the NBA’s second-worst record and now face a long summer of rebuilding, but finishing on an upswing has given the Wizards some confidence for the future: “We’re doing good, walking in the right direction,” Nene told the Post.
Padres 2, Nationals 1: Once again, the Nationals’ starting pitcher was great. Edwin Jackson gave up six hits and no runs in six and two-thirds innings before being relieved by Tyler Clippard. Unfortunately, as seems to be the case most nights, Jackson got very little by way of run support—he left the mound with the Nats holding a tenuous 1-0 lead over San Diego. Clippard got out of a tight jam when he came on to finish the seventh inning, but in the eighth, things slipped away. The Padres’ first two batters reached base on a walk and a bunt single, which brought up pinch-hitter Mark Kotsay, whom on the fourth pitch of the at-bat lined a double to the right-center field wall, bringing in the tying and winning runs.
“It was just poorly executed, and the pitch selection wasn’t good, either,” Clippard, who has not seemed like the 1.83-earned run average set-up man he was last year, told the Post. At least Jayson Werth is still hitting, his solo home run accounted for the Nationals’ only offense. This weekend, the Nats, still the best team in the National League at 14-5, head up Interstate 5 for a series with the NL’s second-best team in the Los Angeles Dodgers.
