Coming into tonight’s game the Washington Wizards had struggled on the road losing nine-straight games away from the Verizon Center. Washington’s last win on the road came on January 27th against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Wizards didn’t have any problems tonight as they hit the Charlotte Hornets early and often defeating them in dominating fashion 95-69. Despite the Hornets being under .500 they had been one of the hotter teams in the Eastern Conference winning five straight games.

Marcin Gortat led the Wizards in scoring with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting, while grabbing seven rebounds in only 28 minutes of play. John Wall had one of his better games in recent memory scoring 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting, 11 of which came in the first quarter. Wall also racked up nine assists, five rebounds, and three steals in 29 minutes of play.

John Wall had this to say after the game, “We just want to get back to winning. We’ve had so many games lately, and haven’t been ourselves. Hopefully, we can keep improving off this game and keep doing well.”

Bradley Beal added 14 points tonight as he was given last game off getting a night to rest. Unfortunately, it seemed Beal suffered a hamstring strain late in the second half. He was able to return but he did limp off the floor after the game. Kevin Seraphin came off the bench and scored 12 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Paul Pierce and Nene added nine points apiece, and Otto Porter Jr. scored eight points and secured six rebounds.

Charlotte only had three players in double-figure scoring tonight. Mo Williams led the way and dropped 19 points on 6-of-18 shooting. Al Jefferson scored 14 points; Lance Stevenson came off the bench and added 12 points. It was a tough shooting night as the Hornets shot 32.5 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from behind the arc (4-of-22).

Washington shot lights out from the field to the tune of 51.8 percent, and they overpowered the Hornets on the boards outrebounding Charlotte 49-to-37. Aside from an abysmal percent from three (2-of-14), the Wizards dominated the paint 54-to-24 and shut them out on the break 20-to-0.

Both teams traded leads early on but the Wizards took control of the first quarter and led 36-21 at the end of the quarter. Charlotte made a valiant attempt to get back in this game as they ended the second quarter on a 7-0 run and were down only 10 at halftime. Washington took control in the second half as they held Charlotte to only 23 total points, and finished the game defeating them by 26 points.

Wizards head coach Randy Wittman had this to say post game, “We just needed a win, we needed to play like this and win. We knew that Charlotte was going to be one of the harder teams. They had won five in a row, and averaging almost 105 points in those wins.”

This was a much needed win for the Washington Wizards. Coming into tonight’s game they had lost eight of their last ten games and looked left for dead in the Eastern Conference.

The Wizards will have a couple days off before they face the Memphis Grizzlies at home on Thursday night at 7:00 PM EST on TNT. The Hornets will stay home to face the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night at 7:00 PM EST.