WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The Washington Wizards lost their offense after Larry Hughes lost his cool.
Hughes' ejection led to the worst offensive game of the season for the Wizards, a 95-71 setback to the San Antonio Spurs, who got a season-high 23 points from Malik Rose.
Tim Duncan added 17 points and 13 rebounds for San Antonio, which trailed, 26-17, after one period as Hughes scored 10 points. But Hughes made a costly mistake in the second quarter that sent the Wizards into an downward spiral.
San Antonio rallied to take a 36-32 lead before Hughes was called for a loose ball foul with four minutes to go. Hughes was upset with the call and rolled the ball to the other end of the court, drawing a technical foul and an ejection.
"I didn't throw it at him," Hughes said. "It was an overreaction. I lost my head for a second, but clearly it was a little severe to be ejected on the ball being rolled down the court."
Washington did not recover, managing a season-low nine points in the second quarter and just 14 in the third. It shot a season-low 34 percent (28-of-83) from the floor en route to its lowest total since December 13, 2002.
"We played a great first quarter," Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said. "Then we just couldn't make shots. We had open jumpers and didn't make it and the game got out of hand."
While the Wizards floundered, the Spurs flourished, bouncing back from Friday's loss to Philadelphia. They won for just the second time in five road games after posting a league-best 27-14 road record during the 2002-03 campaign.
"We've really showed signs of getting our defense up to the level that we want it to be," Duncan said. "It's just a great lesson for everybody to see that when we play defense the right way, we can win games."
"We made a concerted effort to stay focused and do things the way that we do it, which is defense, rebounding, and executing on offense," Rose said.
San Antonio's Hedo Turkoglu grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds, Bruce Bowen added nine and Rose collected eight as the Spurs held a 53-40 advantage on the glass.
Gilbert Arenas scored 14 points on just 4-of-19 shooting and Juan Dixon added 11 for Washington, which has lost four in a row after winning three of its first five.
Hughes scored all 10 of his points in the opening six minutes as the Wizards jumped out to a 26-16 lead. But they made just 4-of-17 shots in the second as the Spurs took control with an 18-4 run, highlighted by eight points from Jason Hart.
