Emeka Okafor scored 19 points and chipped in 11 rebounds in the Washington Wizards comprehensive 120-91 victory over the Orlando Magic.
"That was a beautiful thing tonight," the Associated Press quoted Wizards coach Randy Wittman commented on the huge victory. "This has been building."
John Wall, who was out because of knee injury for the first 33 games of the season and returned in the last game, added 12 points and six assists and A.J. Price had 18 points and six assists.
"It just came out of nowhere -- how fast we're playing now. With John back, the speed is so much faster," Bradley Beal said.
Washington out-rebounded Orlando 42-38 in the game. The Wizards made 46 shots out of 82 attempts, while the Magic had only 37-of-87. The Magic hit only five 3-pointers, whereas Washington made seven.
"These games have not been flukes, we've just been playing very well," Price said. "We lost so many close games that I think once we started losing so many in a row, it became a mental thing. When we got to the fourth quarter, it became a mental thing. We just couldn't execute."
For the Magic, Jameer Nelson was the leading scorer with 19 points and 12 assists. Nikola Vucevic had 13 points and 13 rebounds, while Arron Afflalo could not perform well against the Wizards as he missed 10 out of 11 attempts from the floor to finish with a mere two points in the game.
"We just, we got completely outplayed tonight in every aspect of the game. Just didn't have it tonight," J.J. Redick said.
The Wizards dominated the game from the start. They outscored Orlando 28-22 in the first quarter and finished the first half with a 59-53 lead.
"We talked about that before the game -- just what Wall does, and how he creates tempo, and everyone else is able to feed off that. And I think at the half it was 19-1 transition points. That's tough to overcome," Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said.
Washington scored 37 points in the third quarter, with the Magic only managing 24. The Wizards were leading 96-77 at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Wizards completely dominated the fourth quarter, scoring 24 to the Magic's 14 to win the game by 29 points.
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