The Washington Wizards won a major victory in the final game of their four-game trip to the West Coast. The Wizards managed to win this game without Davis Bertans, who scored 35 points last week against this same Denver Nuggets team in DC.
The game started very ugly, with both teams struggling to continue offensively. Wizards were able to get out of funk first, as Nuggets didn’t get anything in the first half. For half, Denver had a fall below 40 percent, while committing 10 losses. The Nuggets would end with 18 spins for the game. This happened after the Nuggets were announced for setting an NBA record of 1 turnover in Wednesday’s victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
In the second half, however, the Nuggets would go more offensively with a big third quarter that saw them shoot 13 out of 22 on the field, including 8 out of 16 out of 3. As the game approached the 4th, it looked like the Nuggets were waking up and ready to take control, maintaining leadership at the start of the 4th. The Wizards, however, landed some timely shots and managed a critical stop in the final seconds to put them in a position to win the game. And if we’re being honest, the Nuggets’ decision in the final moments didn’t hurt either.
Apprenticeship
Raul Neto played with a tremendous and intelligent basketball
Neto played well in his playing time, providing a spark off the bench. He filled the stats sheet with good passes, timely kicks and solid defense. Tonight, he made 15 points, 4 assists to go with 5 steals, the best of his career. One of his thefts in particular summed up his impact on this game.
Bradley Beal was super efficient
Beal scored 33 points from 19 shots tonight. He made it look easy, getting timely photos. There were times when the attack lasted for a couple of periods of drought lasting more than 3 minutes, but their ability to pinch allowed the Wizards to remain in control of the game for much of the game.
Transitional defense exposes inconsistent effort
The wizards played a poor transition defense throughout the game. The statistics seemed to confirm this, as Denver overcame the Wizards by 23-8 on quick break points. For as many advances as the Wizards made in defense, there were still times when they went back to some of their bad habits. This game showed that, but the Wizards were lucky enough to win.
Other notes:
- With Davis Bertans unavailable for this game, Troy Brown Jr. got his first minutes on the court in 6 games. This is the first game he has played for at least 10 minutes since the February 12 game against the New York Knicks.
- The Wizards complete the West Coast trip with a 3-1 record and won the series against Denver this season.