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Bobcats cruise past Wizards

Feb 12, 2009 - 4:03 AM CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Ticker) -- The Charlotte Bobcats grabbed the lead early and maintained it Wednesday, cruising to a 101-89 victory over the woeful Washington Wizards.

The Bobcats' balanced attack proved too much for the Wizards as five players wound up in double figures. D.J. Augustin paced the offense with 24 points.

Raymond Felton hit a layup to give Charlotte an 8-7 lead and there was no turning back and no fighting back for Washington, which fell 31 games under .500 at 11-42.

"It wasn't the prettiest," Charlotte coach Larry Brown said. "We had an awful lot of turnovers, but we were able to get points off their turnovers. We had a lot of guys play really well. It was a good way to start the (All-Star) break."

The Bobcats, who were without injured Gerald Wallace and Raja Bell, led 24-21 after one and extended the gap through the second and third quarters.

The Wizards closed within 93-87 on a layup by Darius Songaila. After a some sloppy play by both teams, Augustin hit a pair of free throws after being fouled on a drive to the hoop. Vladimir Radmanovic followed with a 3-point shot and the lead was back to 11 and the outcome was settled.

For good measure, Radmanovic added another shot from beyond the arc with less than two minutes left to make it 101-87.

Nick Young closed the scoring with a dunk for Washington, which went 3 1/2 minutes without scoring before the hoop.

"It's been an easy adjustment for me," said Radmanovic, who came over from the Los Angeles Lakers. "I'm still far away from knowing what we're running, but I'm just trying to find open spots. Obviously the guys are looking for me and I've made some really open shots.

"I haven't had this many shots for a really long time and it feels really good when you're open and you get the ball. I'm one of those guys that when I see an open guy and if he's more open than me, I'm going to pass him the ball. That's how basketball is supposed to be played."

Caron Butler led the Wizards with 26 points in 45 minutes. Antawn Jamison chipped in with 23, but no other player on Washington reached double figures in scoring as the troubled season continued.

The Wizards shot 35-of-84 (42 percent) and managed to hit 50 percent of their shots from behind the arc (9-of-18). Still, their best wasn't good enough as has been the script throughout this season.

"It's like Groundhog Day," Jamison said. "Defensively, we didn't get stops. A couple of times we didn't even get a shot off.

"We need to refocus. It's not good that we had to end on a loss. It's well-deserved. We'll be back next week and ready for the rest of the season."

The Bobcats hit 37-of-74 (50 percent), including 11-of-27 from long distance. Charlotte's starters had 33 of the team's baskets.

Radmanovic added 21 points, Emeka Okafor had 16 and 13 rebounds and Felton had a nice all-around game with 15, nine assists and eight rebounds.

"I don't know," Felton said of flirting with a triple-double. "It's one of those things that's not easy as you can see. I flirted with it against the Lakers, flirted with it in Utah and flirted again with it tonight.

I guess it's going to happen at some point. I'm just glad we got the win."