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Air ball Pacers hold Jordan to six points in 108-81 win vs. WizardsPosted: Thursday December 27, 2001 9:36 PMUpdated: Friday December 28, 2001 2:33 AM
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Michael Jordan has never played this poorly in his NBA career. Jordan scored a career-low six points on 2-for-10 shooting as the Indiana Pacers beat the Washington Wizards 108-81 on Thursday night. Jalen Rose scored 26 points and Jamaal Tinsley added 16 points and 12 assists as the Pacers won their fourth in a row, and 10th in their last 14. Jordan played only 25 minutes and failed to make a field goal in the second half. The last time Jordan failed to reach double digits was March 22, 1986, when he scored eight points against Cleveland -- his previous low. He had reached double digits in 866 consecutive games. By the time he left with 3:23 remaining in the third, the Wizards trailed 78-52. Jordan said he never thought about re-entering the game to score more points. "I knew where I was in terms of that," Jordan said. "I'm not here chasing any individual accolades. If I felt that was an issue, and I wanted to chase it, I could have easily gone up to Doug [Collins] and said I wanted to go back in."
Jordan missed four of his first five shots to start the game before being substituted by Courtney Alexander with 2:13 left in the first quarter. He didn't return until nearly six minutes into the second quarter and finished the half 2-for-8 for five points. Washington was playing without injured starters Richard Hamilton and Christian Laettner, making Jordan the lone target of the Pacers' defense. Rose received most of the defensive responsibilities. Jordan, who is battling tendinitis, sat on the bench most of the second half with his legs stretched out and ice packs on both knees. Collins, the Wizards' first-year coach, downplayed Jordan's points total. "The reason he had a career low is because I didn't play him 12 minutes of the game," he said. "I'm not going to play Michael in that type of situation. He could have gone out the last eight or 10 minutes and scored eight or 10. That's not what this is all about. Nobody likes to get beat like we got beat, but I'm not going to put Michael out in that type of game." The Wizards, who played their third game in a row without Hamilton, their second-leading scorer who has a strained groin, have lost two straight following a team record nine-game winning streak. Tyronn Lue scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Wizards, who shot 37 percent overall. Brendan Haywood added 11 rebounds.
The Wizards took a two-point lead midway through the first, but were outscored 19-8 the rest of the quarter. Rose scored 15 points in the first on 6-of-10 shooting to help him bust out of a horrendous slump. He had shot 21-for-79 in his previous six games, including 1-for-12 Wednesday night against Orlando. "I'm a rhythm player," Rose said. "Any time that rhythm is disturbed, it just takes a minute to get it back going. Fortunately, it was there today." Rose stayed away from outside shots and tried to score in the paint on layups. "Opportunity allowed for guys to get me the ball in position," Rose said. "There's no excuses. You're supposed to knock every shot you take. I'm not here to make excuses for good or bad games." The Pacers pushed their lead to 55-43 and then took off in the second half. They scored the first 10 points of the third quarter, while the Wizards missed their first 10 shots from the floor. The Wizards missed 14 of their 16 shots in the third quarter. Rose and Jermaine O'Neal, who scored 10, combined for 15 points in the third as the Pacers led by as many as 29 points. Carlos Rogers scored 15 points and Al Harrington added 12 for the Pacers. The Wizards were coming off a 99-93 loss to Charlotte on Wednesday. Jordan said fatigue wasn't a factor. "You can blame a lot of scenarios -- traveling, back-to-back games or whatever," Jordan said. "We played with no continuity. Defensively, offensively we didn't have nothing. They came out with more motivation." Notes: The Pacers are one game behind Milwaukee in the Central Division. The Bucks were off Thursday. ... The Pacers are the first team in the division to win 18 games. ... Indiana is five games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 1999-2000 season. ... Jordan scored 21 points on 8-for-26 shooting against the Pacers on Nov. 22. ... Reggie Miller failed to reach double figures in points for the first time this season. He scored five points.
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