WASHINGTON - The rat-a-tat pace of the NBA schedule generally doesn't allow time for one loss to immediately burrow in on a team's psyche. More likely, the effect of the Washington Wizards' 106-101 overtime loss to the Dallas Mavericks yesterday might be felt in mid-April, if the Wizards just miss the playoffs.
Come season's end, if the Wizards can't get into the postseason, they'll add yesterday's thriller to a growing list of games that were within their grasp, but ultimately eluded them.
"You can't lose a game like this at home, with so much at stake," Washington forward Charles Oakley said. "We let it slip away. Our defense got tougher, but we have to know how important a game is when we're on the court and do the little things right."
The Wizards not only had Dallas - the team with the best record in the NBA - down by 18 in the first quarter, but they also made up a 12-point deficit in the final 6:30 and in their final possession in regulation had the ball in the hands of Michael Jordan, who launched a 20-footer for the win.
If Jordan, who willed the Wizards to a three-point win over the New Jersey Nets on Friday night with a 43-point performance, had gotten the shot to drop, Washington would have had consecutive wins over two of the league's best teams and a couple of big victories to erase a couple of bad home losses to the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors.
Instead, his right-wing jumper clanked off the back rim.
"I thought I had made it," said Jordan, who had 30 points. "I got exactly what I wanted. I felt like the defense was going to really try to prevent me from trying to go to my left. I made a lot of my game of going to the right. I got a good look, but it didn't go in."
The Wizards (26-29) then were dragged into their second overtime game of the year. In the extra session, Dallas point guard Steve Nash scored nine of his 22 points, including six of the Mavericks' last seven.
The Mavericks (44-12) fell into a 24-6 hole off the bat, as the Wizards pierced Dallas' zone to near perfection, while the Mavericks struggled offensively, save for Dirk Nowitzki and Nick Van Exel, who scored all of Dallas' points in the first quarter.
By the second, however, the Mavericks had picked up the pace, with the second unit of former Maryland star Walt Williams, Eduardo Najera and Van Exel outscoring Washington's subs 25-2 in the half and slicing the Wizards' lead to five at the half.
