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Bradley Beal scored a game-high 34 points to lead the Wizards (17-31) to a 113-107 win over the Nets (21-27) Saturday night at Capital One Arena. The game was Beal’s sixth straight with at least 34 points, making him the first Wizards player since Bernard King in 1990 to score 30-plus points in six consecutive outings.
Beal tallied 15 of his 34 points in the final seven minutes of the game, including a dunk, to spark an 11-2 run to tie the game with just over five minutes left. Brooklyn countered and retook the lead, but Beal hit a three with just over three minutes left in the game, the start of a 10-1 Washington run to close and win the game.
“We made plays,” Wizards head coach Scott Brooks said. “We were aggressive on both ends. I thought the guys challenged a lot of shots and put four hands on the basketball on our pick-and-roll coverage. We were flying out. They hit some threes but we didn’t put our head down when they made them. We kept challenging them. They missed enough down the stretch and we made a couple plays, and that was the game.”
Saturday’s win over the Nets marks a continuation of the Wizards’ recent success at home. The team is 6-1 at Capital One Arena, including three straight wins, since January 4 and holds the third best home winning percentage in the league in that time. Overall, the Wizards are now 7-7 in their last 14 games.
“We are comfortable (at home),” Brooks said. “Our crowd’s great. It was good atmosphere tonight. They want to see effort and they’re getting it…We are playing as hard as we can. We are not the perfect basketball team; guys aren’t always going to play (well) but their effort has been pretty consistent. And that’s what every fan base wants to see. And they see our players growing up.”
Beal went 10-15 (.667) from the free throw line, joining James Harden and Allen Iverson as the only players since 1998 to attempt 15-plus free throws in four consecutive games.
Gary Payton II drew the early assignment against Kyrie Irving, who was coming off a 54-point performance against the Bulls on Friday. On the first two possessions of the night, Payton II got physical with Irving and forced the All-NBA guard into a pair of turnovers. Irving was held scoreless until the 5:29 mark of the second quarter. Despite the early success against Irving, normally the driving force of Brooklyn’s offensive efforts, the Wizards had trouble slowing down the remainder of the Nets’ rotation. Former Wizard Garrett Temple scored 14 points in the first quarter alone, shooting 5-6 (.833) from the field and 3-4 (.750) from deep. As a team, the Nets shot 60.9% from the field and 63.6% from 3-point range in the first quarter.
The Brooklyn lead peaked at 12 early in the second when DeAndre Jordan scored on a put-back dunk one possession after Caris LeVert hit a three. Another Payton II steal led to Davis Bertans’s second 3-pointer of the night, which sparked a 14-3 Wizards run to cut the lead to one. The Wizards’ bench scored 21 points in the second quarter, led by seven points by Ish Smith and six points from Bertans. Washington trailed by just two at the half.
Both teams came out cold in the third quarter, combining for just 45 points on 15-48 (.312) from the field and 4-21 (.190) from beyond the arc. The Wizards scored 14 of their 22 third quarter points in the paint, including 10 points from Bryant and Ian Mahinmi. As a team, the Wizards finished the game 9-32 (.281) from 3-point range, earning just their third win this season when shooting below 30.0% from deep.
Bryant finished the game with 17 points and 10 rebounds, his seventh double-double of the season. Bryant scored nine points on 3-4 (.750) shooting in the fourth quarter, keeping the Wizards within reach before Beal checked in and took over the final minutes of the game. Bryant finished the game 7-11 (.636) from the field, his seventh consecutive game shooting at least 63.0% from the field.
The Wizards are back in action on Monday for a matchup with the Warriors (11-39) at 7:00 P.M. at Capital One Arena.