Wizards 119
Nets 113
January 13, 2018 | Capital One Arena | Washington, D.C.
The Washington Wizards survived a furious Brooklyn Nets rally to win 119-113 thanks to a couple of big shots by John Wall. The win improved the Wizards record to 25-18. This win came on the second leg of a back-to-back affair after defeating the Orlando Magic the night before. Saturday’s win marked the first time this season that the Wizards have swept a back-to-back affair. Six Wizards players reached double figures with Bradley Beal leading the way with 24 points. John Wall added 23 and a season-high 16 assists. Kelly Oubre Jr. added 17 off the bench.
Wizards Start Hot, Nets Start Cold
Things went poorly for the Wizards during their last two meetings with the Brooklyn Nets and they came out of the gates and built a 20-4 lead early on. The Wizards were able to build a 23 point lead late in the second quarter up 57-34. The Wizards led by 20 at the half and shot 56.1 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from beyond the arc. Beal and Gortat led the way in the first half with 14 and 11 points respectively. The Nets shot just 41.5 percent from the field and 18.8 percent from three.
"Just being aggressive," Beal said. "You know I never take all the credit. Without my teammates, I wouldn’t be able to have this streak. But, I do take pride in being aggressive and being a scorer, and doing the best that I can."
Polish Heritage Night
The real star of the show was Marcin Gortat as he put on a show in front of his hundreds of fans from Poland in town for his annual Polish Heritage Night. The Polish Machine finished with 16 points to go along with 13 rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. Gortat had his 11th double-double of the season and Washington is 3-0 when both he and Wall record double-doubles.
"[Marcin] Gortat that's a big guy. I just have learn, how to deal with his physicality. I'm not as strong as him," Nets center Jarrett Allen said.
The Nets got back into the game in the third quarter by opening with a 7-2 run. That 7-2 run turned into a 21-9 run to cut the deficit to eight. In the third quarter, the Nets scored 35 points after scoring just 39 in the first half. The third quarter Nets charge was led by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson with eight points (Hollis-Jefferson ultimately finished the game with 22). The Wizards defense wasn’t any better in the fourth quarter either as they allowed 33 points, a combined 68 in the second half.
"We relaxed," Scott Brooks said. "We were up 23 and had a chance to go up 25 [or] 26 at half. You give them hope and come out in the third quarter slow, and with their speed, they're not going to stop playing. That's how they play. They play every possession hard. They close out games, it doesn't matter what the score is, they play hard and they play throughout the game, and we didn't do that. We didn't do that in that third quarter. We had a chance to be up 20-plus points in that third quarter if we would have played like we did in the first half."
Late Game Drama
The Nets kept chipping away in the fourth quarter. Trailing by 11, the Nets closed the fourth quarter on a 16-5 run. Trailing 105-104 with 18.3 seconds to go, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson threw a bad pass away allowing the Wizards to go up three with a pair of free throws by John Wall after an inbound foul. The Nets tied it with 9.1 seconds left on a three by Quincy Acy. Wall couldn’t hit a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer which sent the game to over.
"The whole second half was just nasty for us, period," Wall said. "We gave we them life and let them back into the game. We made it tougher than we were supposed to. Lucky, we got the win. That’s all that matters. We have to do better, we have to do a lot better."
Wall Comes Through
Wall came up big in overtime and so did Beal as the House of Guards each combined for nine points. With the Wizards ahead 111-109, Wall got a big block on Spencer Dinwiddle that led to a three by Beal. Wall would then hit a jumper to put the Wizards up five. After a layup by Hollis-Jefferson on the other end, Wall hit the dagger to seal the win.
"We got an All-Star point guard. That helps, right?," Brooks joked. "He made big plays, big shots down the stretch, 16 assists, not enough free throw attempts. He hit six of them, but I thought he deserved more. But that's not my job. But I thought he made big shots down the stretch. He made big shots, we have to be able to step up and make shots, and he did."
"We did a great job of just screening the ball and moving the ball a lot more," Wall said. Brad [Beal] was being aggressive. The shots he made were the shots we took all game, but when a team starts making a run you have to find a way to ease in and get easy buckets and we couldn’t do that."
Next Game: The Wizards will get a well-deserved day off before hosting the Milwaukee Bucks in a MLK Day matinee. We all know what happened last game between Bradley Beal and Matthew Dellavedova. This will certainly be an entertaining rematch.