WASHINGTON _ The NBA stat of the year might have been that the 15-win Nets had more wins in March (six) going into Friday night's games than the defending NBA champion Cavaliers (five). But after a fast start against the Wizards Friday night at Verizon Center, the Nets reverted to their miserable January-February form in a 129-108 blowout loss.
The Nets (15-57) fell behind by 28 points in the second quarter and never got closer than 14 the rest of the way. Justin Hamilton led the Nets with 20 points off the bench, Rondae Hollis Jefferson added 19 points and Jeremy Lin had 14.
The Wizards (44-28) were led by their backcourt tandem of John Wall (22 points, nine assists) and Bradley Beal (19 points). The also got a great performance by their bench, including 18 points and nine assists from Brandon Jennings, 17 points and seven rebounds from Bojan Bogdanovic and 16 points and seven rebounds from Ian Mahinmi.
The Nets hoped to build on their first two-game winning streak of the season, but after a 31-point blowout of a Suns team with the youngest starting lineup in NBA history, they ran into a Wizards squad holding the third seed in the Eastern Conference with ambitions of moving up.
"This is a different animal," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said of the Wizards. "They can get 120 on you in a heartbeat."
In the early going, the Nets seemed energized by their recent success, taking a 13-4 lead. But their offense disappeared as soon as the full second unit was on the floor in the first period with a 19-16 lead. They failed to score a field goal the rest of the period as the Wizards built a 31-22 lead.
Against the Suns, the Nets' bench scored a season-high 81 points, but it was the Wizards' bench that blew the game wide-open from the end of the first period into the second period as Washington built a 28-point lead at 59-31. Mahinmi had 11 first-half points in that stretch and Bogdanovic, who was traded from the Nets on Feb. 22, added eight first-half points against his old teammates.
Before the game, Wizards coach Scott Brooks gushed about Bogdanovic, saying, "He's fit in like seamless. It's like he's been here all year. He's just a great personality to have on our team, he's a team guy. He cheers his teammates on when he comes out of the game. He's not looking like he's being dissed.
"He's making shots. The thing I like about him is that he's not just a shooter. He can put it on the floor and get to the free-throw line. He's been great. I think he's going to be a big addition as the season winds down and going into the playoffs."
