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Wizards guard John Wall and Pacers guard Paul George, right, celebrate during the team's second quarter game against the Atlanta Hawks at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (Photo: Matt Kryger/IndyStar)
After losing the first two meetings with Philadelphia, Washington Wizards (2-6) beat the Pacers (3-2) at Wells Fargo Center in Indianapolis Saturday.
Washington came to Indiana with its top-heavy schedule, finishing its first 15-day homestand against its division rivals at 14-40. The Wizards were at Philadelphia for only their second time this season.
Washington ended a stretch of 12 games without a victory by winning 124-94 after the second quarter, which brought a rally by the team that won an eight-game homestand in 2012-13 after falling in Washington, 107-95, last season.
"We're going to get better," Wall told the media after the victory. "That is what we were trying to do and the last seven games were not good enough."
The Pacers have averaged 105.2 points in five games this season since the Wizards took the series. The Pacers had won seven of their previous eight games.
Washington shot 59.4 percent from the field for the fourth straight game but fell behind by 17 points with 7:44 left. Paul Millsap made a 3-pointer with 5:16 remaining to make it 98-98.
Washington, outscored 17-10 in the second half, went on an 11-5 run to start the third quarter as Washington outscored Philadelphia 40-32 on free throws. With 4:21 left, Wall finished, but made just 2 of 6 shots.
The Pacers trailed by as many as 19 in the fourth period before the Wizards made one of three late-game baskets to take the lead. The Wizards went on an 8-0 run to cap what would be the Pacers' worst effort since the team blew a 16-point lead in the final four minutes of a Dec. 1 win in Philadelphia.
Bucks center J.J. Redick made a 3-pointer to give Philadelphia a 96-94 lead at halftime. Redick made all three of his field goals, putting Washington up 98-90 with 6:23 remaining. The Sixers scored the final seven points of the fourth.
"A lot of people are going to talk about us being lazy as this group is trying to win three straight, that's not true," Wall said. "We've got to go the distance and be physical because we're playing so well. We got to give it our all. At the end of the day, we've done enough to mak
Riverina farmers told to prepare for locusts The California Department of Pesticide Regulation is sending farmers a warning to prepare for locusts, which are spreading to the nation's most populous states.
In the Sierra Nevada foothills near San Francisco, a rash of unusual brown and gold-colored locusts have swept through a farming area that is home to a population of 8,000 people, and authorities say they know of at least two other incidents involving such activity.
"We are doing everything we can to minimize any adverse health effects from the locusts," said Carol Lofrano of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. "Our best advice is to remain inside and indoors on the day of planting, as it is the easiest way to avoid potential impacts."
Lofrano said in all, at least 30 potential locust damage sites have been identified in a single day and dozens more are under investigation.
In one of the incidents last week, a couple of miles down the road in a small farm community where Lofrano works as a public health analyst, the brown locusts arrived with a clear, clear, clear odor, officials said.
"The smell of locusts is everywhere in the valley," said Lofrano. "We have more than 200 farmers whose crops were damaged and there are a lot of other farmers who have had problems with them, too."
On Tuesday, the state issued alerts to residents who live in areas of possible locust damage, warning people to take precautions when preparing crops, including moving all plants away from heat and light sources and spraying during a prolonged hot weather period.
The two-day warning was triggered from one of the unusual locusts on Thursday, but the alerts are unusual because the plants are new, said Lofrano.
Locust disease experts in the region are worried that farmers are not properly tending to locust crops so that some plants survive, Lofrano said. She noted that the most likely reason is that they aren't prepared with all of the best practices in place for safe handling of seeds.
In California, the California Department of Agriculture and the Department of Pesticide Regulation are conducting an investigation into one of the unusual cases in Sierra Nevada. (Photo: EPA)
"We are still not aware of any cases in the valley of actual locust damage and we are not aware of any actual, significant cases of locust damage in the state," she said.
In a statement, the agriculture department said "it takes the best of risk assessments to develop a risk assessment system that will better serve California's farmers and growers and allow for the maximum impact of these potentially disastrous events." The state's crop insurance program provides farmers and growers with crop insurance tha
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