Home-court advantage seems to be coming back for the Washington Wizards, which won its third straight home game Monday 110-92 over the Sacramento Kings.
Exactly 15 days ago in Sacramento, the Wizards scored the same amount of points and gave up only 83.
Although the Wizards pulled away in the second half at Capital One Arena in northwest D.C., Washington center Marcin Gortat, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds, had a message for the fans.
“I feel like we owe them an apology,” Gortat said. “They come here and expect us to win games. We also expect them to come when we play big teams like Boston or Cleveland. We expect them to come and help us out. We have to give them wins in those games when we play teams [with subpar records].
“They pay a lot of money for tickets, so I feel responsible to apologize for that,” he added.
Gortat’s message stems from the team’s two homes losses earlier this month against the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks won its second game of the season Tuesday against Washington (8-5).
However, the past three home games have been all about defense, with each opponent scoring fewer than 100 points. It didn’t hurt that Washington’s past two opponents, Atlanta and Sacramento (3-10), rank near the bottom of the NBA in scoring.
Another advantage for the second straight game was the Wizards bench production, led by Mike Scott’s 15 points and five rebounds. Kelly Oubre Jr. pitched in 12 points and seven rebounds, including a between-the-legs dribble and monstrous dunk in the fourth quarter.
“My preparation was everything today just like everybody else,” Oubre said. “The result of that is a win, so I felt pretty good.”
The Wizards fell behind 32-25 after the first quarter, but put the clamps on from there, allowing 21 points or less in each of the remaining three quarters. The Kings, led by George Hill’s 16 points, shot just 40 percent from the floor.
Washington, which ranks second the NBA in scoring with 111 points per contest, shot nearly 52 percent from the floor. In addition, the team had 30 assists.
“We generated points off our defense,” head coach Scott Brooks said. “We’re at our best when we defend and when we try to score off our defense.”
The Wizards travel Wednesday to South Florida for the first half of a home-and-home series against Southeast Division foe Miami Heat (6-7).