addByline("Chris Gehring", "WashingtonWizards.com", "cdgehring");
The NBA season is often described as a marathon, not a sprint. Saturday night’s meeting between the Wizards and the Suns could have been described similarly. Without John Wall (illness) and Otto Porter Jr. (right knee), it was Bradley Beal’s night to shine for Washington. He responded in All-Star fashion with a career night, scoring 40 points to go with 15 assists and 11 rebounds, his first career triple-double. He also logged a whopping 53 minutes as Washington edged Phoenix in three overtimes, 149-146.
“It’s tiring, but it’s fun,” said Beal postgame “You always embrace those types of games, competitive games like that – down to the wire. It was definitely a gut check for us, with John [Wall] down. We have a lot of guys out. We added five new guys. If you look at our second group, it was a group of new guys out there. So, it was good for us to be able to adjust on the fly. Just all about effort, playing hard.”
If Beal’s performance wasn’t Thomas Bryant added a perfect 14-for-14 performance from the field en route to a career-high 31 points and 13 rebounds. Jeff Green and Markieff Morris scored 20 apiece, while Tomas Satoransky (who started in place of Wall) scored 17 and recorded nine assists. On the night, the Wizards assisted on a remarkable 40-of-56 field goals, shooting 50.5% on 111 total shots.
“MVP. All for it. All for it,” said Beal of Bryant. “That’s my boy. He plays his tail off every minute. Energy, finishing at the room, rebounding, blocking shots, contesting shots, being up on pick-and-rolls, making it tough. He did everything we needed him to do. He’s still young, still makes mistakes, but he makes them at 110%, so we live with them. He had 30 [points], so everybody’s going to be quiet about it.”
For Phoenix, Devin Booker led the way with 33 points, TJ Warren scored 28 and rookie big man Deandre Ayton added 26 points and 17 rebounds. Kelly Oubre Jr., just traded to Phoenix, scored 20 points off the bench.
The final moments of regulation were as hectic as Saturday’s game on the whole. Washington trailed by seven points with 2:56 remaining in regulation before evening the score with a 7-0 run that ended with a Green 3-pointer at the 1:43 mark. Then, a Beal 3-pointer gave the Wizards a three-point lead before Booker and Oubre answered to retake the lead by two with four seconds remaining. Green was fouled with 3.4 seconds remaining in regulation, hitting both free throws to send the game to extra frames.
Bryant scored eight points in each of the first two overtimes, bringing his usual energy that just didn’t run out. And in the final overtime frame, Beal took the Wizards home. He poured in 10 points in the third extra period, hitting a 3-pointer with 2:59 remaining that Washington didn’t look back from. Phoenix did battle back to tie the game two more times, but free throws from Satoransky and Green put the game on ice.
Next, there will be no rest for the weary. The Wizards will play the second half of a back-to-back Sunday night in their second trip of the season to Indianapolis. Tipoff against the Pacers is set for 5:00 P.M.