John Wall, Washington Wizards Rout Miami Heat, 107-86

John Wall and the Washington Wizards started off hot early to dispatch the Miami Heat challenge with a convincing 107-86 victory on Monday. Wall finished with a double-double of 18 points and 13 assists and added 2 steals to help the Wizards climb to second place overall in the Eastern Conference with their 11th win in 16 games so far in the 2014-2015 NBA season.

Washington lost back-to-back gams— to the Atlanta Hawks, 106-102 and Cleveland Cavaliers, 113-87— for their first losing stretch of the season but has nicely bounced back with the win against Miami and New Orleans Pelicans, 83-80 in their last two outings.

Starting centre Marcin Gortat also played well for the Wizards with his own double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds with 2 blocked shots but it was the Wizards bench play that was responsible for maintaining the big lead. The Washington bench outscored their counterparts, 54-17 with Rasual Butler hitting his outside shots for 23 points on 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc. Drew Gooden had 10 points and 2 steals.

The Wizards shot 54.2% for the game hitting 39-of-72 field goals including 10 three-pointers. The Heat shot 9.1% from behind the arc hitting 2-of-22 three-point field goals and also missed 12-of-30 shots from the free throw line.

Miami trailed 30-20 after the first quarter and the lead ballooned to 15 points by halftime. The Heat couldn’t get anything going all-game long despite Chris Bosh’s 21 points and Dwyane Wade’s 20 markers. The Heat had little support from other Heat players with starting forward Luol Deng contributing just 9 points (2/7 FGs) and other starters missing their offence. Miami dropped to 9-8 for the year after losing two of their last three games.

Upcoming Schedule (Next 3 Games):

Miami Heat: vs. Atlanta Hawks, at Milwaukee Bucks, at Memphis Grizzlies

Washington Wizards: vs. Los Angeles Lakers, vs. Denver Nuggets, at Boston Celtics