"We don't want to go down in history as one of the worst teams ever."
That was a quote by Wizard's Chris Singleton after the Washington Wizards defeated the Portland Trailblazers 84-82 on Wednesday, fighting back from a 14 point Trailblazer lead that gave the Wizards their first win of their 2012 NBA season.
Yet the Wizards outscored their opponent 20-16, and 23-16, in the second and third quarters somehow find a way to breathe life into a game that suddenly became tightly contested.
To their credit the Trailblazers, who came in at 6-9 facing the Wizards, held the Wizards without scoring a point - for nearly seven minutes - going on a 16-0 run. They would lead 80-79 late in the fourth but would see that lead diminish as the Wizards fought tooth and nail to very end.
Washington led 84-82 with under :10 seconds to go. Washington's inbound pass by Trevor Ariza was stolen by Portland's Wes Matthews with a chance to try to tie, or win, the game but the team failed to do either.
"A loss is a loss", said Portland's J.J. Hickson. "But this one definitely stings knowing the team is 0-12. You never want to be the team they get the win on, but we were that team."
Jordan Crawford scored 19 in the contest while Trevor Ariza added 14. Kevin Seraphin had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards while Portland's Damian Lillard had twenty.
The Wizards fell on Friday 87-108 to the New York Knicks, and face the Miami Heat tonight at Verizon Center.
The team is still without its star point guard John Wall.
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