The Washington Wizards appeared to be running away from the Celtics on Monday night, leading 92-76 going into the fourth quarter at the Verizon Center in DC. Then, yours truly pretty much jinxed the whole thing by writing this, and essentially declaring the game to be over. Almost immediately, the Wizards began coughing up the ball and missing shots en route to a 34-18 disadvantage and a tie game by the end of the final frame.
The Wizards would have been in serious trouble if it weren’t for superstar point guard John Wall — especially in the two overtime periods. While Wall was responsible for nine of the Wiz’s 23 turnovers, he also scored 26 points and dished out a career high 17 assists to go along with 7 rebounds and 3 steals. By the time Evan Turner’s potential game-winning shot clanged harmlessly off the rim, a physically and emotionally drained Wall met with sideline reporter Chris Miller for a well-earned postgame interview.
Miller immediately brought up Wall’s emotional state, as the point guard had lost a young friend to cancer. Wall was only able to make it through one question before bursting into tears and walking away. The young girl Miller was referring to is 6-year-old Damiyah Telemaque-Nelson, who Wall helped fulfill a wish of meeting Nicki Minaj. “Miyah” passed away early Monday morning, and Wall went out and played the game of his life to honor her. Pretty cool.
Wall in tears after the loss of this young girl to cancer today: pic.twitter.com/841eYIFwxm
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) December 9, 2014
The little girl who died today of cancer really wanted to meet Nikki Minaj and John Wall made it happen pic.twitter.com/gpKJNlAK8i
— Judd Legum (@wizjudd) December 9, 2014
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