Wizards lose big lead, fall to Warriors on road originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Washington Wizards lost to the Golden State Warriors 135-126 on Monday night. Here are five takeaways from what went down…
Tough one
The Wizards may have an unusually long flight from San Francisco to Portland on Monday night, as they lost in an especially frustrating fashion to the Warriors.
Those Warriors were without Stephen Curry and the Wizards took advantage early with a 15-point lead, only to see Golden State win the second quarter 42-27 and go up by as many as 20. Somehow the Wizards turned a comfortable lead into being on the wrong end of a blowout.
It was reminiscent of a few games they lost just over a week ago, to the Trail Blazers and Brooklyn Nets. In those games, the Wizards led by 20-plus points and lost. After a good week in between, Washington reverted back to those same problems.
The loss dropped the Wizards to 26-30 on the season through 56 games. They now go to see the Blazers Tuesday night for the second leg of a back-to-back, then to Minnesota on Thursday before the All-Star break.
Beal hit a milestone, lost a tooth
It was a memorable night for Bradley Beal in several different ways. The positive was that he eclipsed the 15,000 career points scored mark. He became the 149th player in NBA history to hit that milestone and just the second in franchise history, the other being Elvin Hayes who owns the team’s all-time scoring record. Beal had 33 points for the night.
Beal, though, also lost a tooth. It’s not clear how he lost it, but it was unmistakable when he showed his grill during a cutaway shot on NBC Sports Washington. Beal either chipped one of his front teeth very badly or lost it altogether.
Looks like Bradley Beal chipped or lost his tooth during tonight's game. pic.twitter.com/bc9gweGoTT
— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS) February 14, 2023
Beal is at least the second Wizards player to lose a tooth during a game this season. Monte Morris also lost a chiclet earlier in the year. There could be more, for all we know, but maybe it’s time for NBA players to get some respect for their toughness. Obviously, hockey players lead the league in lost teeth, but basketball players have to be second behind them.
Porzingis in the 1st
There are quite a few games where it is obvious early on the Wizards want to get Kristaps Porzingis the ball to take advantage of mismatches. That plan worked perfectly in the first quarter, as Porzingis popped off for 16 points in the frame, shooting 6-for-7 from the field. It was the third time already this month he’s scored 15-plus points in the first quarter of a game.
As we’ve seen on other occasions this season, the other team made dramatic adjustments to overload on him and take away his airspace. It was a team effort, though, as the Warriors not only double-teamed him, they at one point employed a triple-team that was kind of sort of a quadruple team. Porzingis finished the game with 34 points.
3-point defense
The Warriors may have been missing Curry, the best shooter in NBA history, but they still had plenty of success from the outside. They popped off for 20 threes on 40 attempts (50%) and made the Wizards’ usually good 3-point defense look not so good at all.
Klay Thompson was a problem for the Wizards, as he scored 20 of his 27 points in the first half. He was one of five Warriors players with at least three threes in this game. That’s quite a few. The NBA record for teammates with three-plus threes in a single game is six.
Nunn was hot
This was Kendrick Nunn’s best game since joining the Wizards and he made that clear right away. Nunn made his first four shots en route to 13 points and six assists. He shot 5-for-7 for the game, including 2-for-3 from three.
It had been a little while since Nunn had a game like this, but he’s certainly capable of it. They used to be a lot more frequent during his days with the Heat. This game was a glimpse at the type of impact he could make if he finds a rhythm down the stretch of this season.
