Hard-Luck Wizards Just Miss Beating Hawks at Buzzer As Martell Webster’s Layup Gets Overturned (Video)

What do you have to do to win a game in the NBA?

Martell Webster was ready to play the hero for the 0-9 Washington Wizards on Wednesday night (say that 10 times fast), but his attempt came up a split-second short as the officials overturned his last-touch layup and gave the Atlanta Hawks a 101-100 victory instead.

The Wizards have had a rough season, but things appeared to finally be on their side Wednesday evening. After coming up just short game after game (of their first nine losses, just three were by 10 points or more), Nene was back from injury, and Washington pushed Atlanta to overtime and held a slim lead in the final seconds.

But then Kyle Korver nailed a 3-pointer, leaving the Wizards a point shy with 1.9 seconds left. Kevin Seraphin, who had put the Wizards ahead the possession before, airballed a hook shot for the win. As his shot missed, Webster leapt after the ball, scooting a layup into the basket that appeared to drop just before time ran out.

The Wizards celebrated only to have the officials review the play and find out that Webster, in fact, had not gotten the layup off before time expired.

“We all ran back here,” Webster said in the locker room after the game. “We thought we had won. Our video guy is showing it over and over.”

But alas, it was not to be. There would be no holiday miracle for the Wizards, who must now wait until Saturday to try to knock off the Bobcats for their first win of the season.

Check out a highlight of the game, including the last-second try by the Wizards, in the video below.

Photo of the Day

Kevin Love is back, to the tune of 34 points and 14 rebounds. Yikes.

Quote of the Day

“That amazes the free world, when he makes those free throws.”
— Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who is such a hoot when he talks about Tiago Splitter