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The day after the Wizards and Cavaliers were part of a three-team trade on Friday night, they met in Cleveland for the second matchup of the season. Ignited by a 31-4 run in the first half, the Cavs cruised to victory over the Wizards, 116-101.
Tristan Thompson’s 23 points and 19 rebounds and Collin Sexton’s 29 points fueled the Cavs to victory. Cleveland shot 52.8% from the field and made 15 3-pointers en route to the 15-point win. Thompson’s presence gave the Cavs a 49-33 advantage on the glass and limiting the Wizards to only 34 points in the paint.
On a night the Wizards struggled from the field, Bradley Beal led Washington with 27 points in 33 minutes. Jeff Green added 17 points off the bench, while Otto Porter Jr. had 15. Outside of Beal, Green, and Porter (23-of-42 shooting), the rest of the Wizards only made 15-of-44 shots.
The Cavs took control of the game late in the first quarter, going on a 31-4 run to open up a 23-point lead. The Wizards went without a field goal for almost eight minutes, and only shot 40.4% from the field in the first half. Beal (17 first half points) and Porter (15) started to will the Wizards back a bit, but they still trailed by double-digits at the half. Cleveland would lead 62-46 at the half, with Thompson already recording a double-double.
"I’m disappointed in the way our mindset wasn’t right," Scott Brooks said postgame. "We gave up everything they wanted. Give them credit. They attacked and got open shots in the paint. They got open three’s. When you give teams open opportunities, they are going to take advantage of it. Coach Drew has this team always playing hard. They haven’t won as many games as they would like but they play hard. They play the right way and they are going to get better as this year continues to go on, but we didn’t have the right mindset.”
Coming off three wins in a row, it was certainly a disappointing result for the Wizards. The Cavaliers were on the second night of a back-to-back and had lost six of seven games heading into this one. The Wizards held a 22-18 lead early, but were quickly taken out of the game by the Cavs’ massive run.
“It was definitely disappointing," Beal said postgame. "We didn’t come out with the same focus and intensity as the last three games that we won. We kind of took a step back a little bit."
After missing shootaround due to illness, John Wall scored a career-low one point in 26 minutes of action. Brooks confirmed postgame that Wall was still under the weather during the game, and Wall said afterwards that he has also been dealing with a bone spur injury on his left foot. An official update will be available before the Wizards' next game.
Of note, Sam Dekker did not play for the Wizards as the trade gets complete. Troy Brown Jr. and Okaro White remained with the Capital City Go-Go in D.C. to play Raptors 905.
Next up, the Wizards (11-15) will finish a four-game road trip against the Pacers (16-10) on Monday night at 7:00 P.M.