"John Wall squared up against the player whose career he would most like to duplicate and did his best to trade him acrobatic layup for head-scratching layup. And for a half, Wall held his own against Derrick Rose, the reigning league's most valuable player, unwilling to get upstaged on his home turf.

But as the game dragged on, and the Washington Wizards continued to miss shots and Rose continued to share the ball with his more-than-capable teammates, the gap between the two players and their respective teams became more magnified."