Perhaps suffering from overconfidence, Brooklyn dropped a 106-99 game to underdog Washington. Brooklyn coach Bob battled unsuccessfully to get his players to take the game seriously, as they came in as heavy favorites. "What more can you do? We prepared as much for them as any other opponent, we made sure we came up with a custom game plan for them, but most of the players just expected Washington to roll over dead."

Washington coach Bob, on the other hand, was thrilled to come away with the win. "I don't know what it was, but I could see from the start that they weren't executing as sharply as normal. I knew we couldn't beat them if they played well, but I felt they were leaving just enough of an opening for us to steal a win. That's exactly what happened, and by the time they finally started to wake up we were well in control."

Washington was led by Mulligan (16 points, 13 boards, 0 assists, a block), Huge (12 points, 6 assists, 2 steals), Gavagan (14 points, 8 boards, 1 assists, 2 blocks). Brooklyn was led by Owens (32 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks), Hargrove (6 points, 19 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks), Jackson (16 points, a steal).

Washington are now 33-44 and 22-16 at home with this win. They remain at #5 in the Southeast and stay at #13 overall in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn drop to 53-24 with the defeat. They have won the Atlantic title and stay at #1 overall in the Eastern Conference.

box score Washington roster Brooklyn roster