The New York Knicks' ended their nine-game home losing streak to the Washington Wizards in suspenseful fashion as forward Mario Hezonja swished a go-ahead triple with 44 seconds to go to put New York up by one and eventually winning it 113-110 on Sunday night.
The rare Madison Square Garden win against Washington (and the aforementioned clutch shot) coincided with the Croatian's career-high 30 points who couldn't help but gloat at the Wizards bench by pointing at them after the conversion.
Mario Hezonja hits the clutch three and points directly at the Wizards' bench, he's RUTHLESS 😂 pic.twitter.com/wQBCGuUCh9
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) April 8, 2019
Hezonja shot 12-21 (including 3-6 from downtown and 3-4 from the charity stripe) and added six rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 35 minutes. While he led the starters with a negative seven differential, in the end, his heroics is what made the victory possible in the first place so the Knicks aren't exactly complaining.
The 24-year-old's NBA career has been disappointing at best. After being selected by the Orlando Magic in 2015 with the fifth overall pick and attracting lofty comparisons to sharpshooting greats, Hezonja struggled to hit his shots for several seasons particularly from long range with a woeful 29.9 percentage at one point. He also saw his playing time drop in favor of other wings on the rotation, forcing the 6-foot-8 forward to pack his bags for the Big Apple in hopes of turning his play around with the Knicks.
Sad to say it was more of the same for Hezonja as his 20 minute per game average is lower than his last season with the Magic and is putting up numbers that are more or less the same. He's still holding out hope however that a game as huge as this one could bolster his stock as a free agent this summer.
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