Nets at Wizards
Bradley Beal will try to continue his impressive scoring surge - this time with a victory in tow - when he leads the Washington Wizards into a matchup with the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. Beal became the first player since the late Kobe Bryant in 2007 to score at least 50 points on back-to-back nights when he finished with 55 against Milwaukee on Monday after putting up 53 versus Chicago on Sunday.
"I was just locked in, and I just was having fun," Beal told reporters after hitting 19-of-33 shots - 8-of-13 3-pointers - in the 137-134 overtime loss to the Bucks. "Probably the most fun game I've ever played in." Washington also dropped the game against the Bulls and has lost three in a row with Beal averaging 44.7 points. The 26-year-old guard also had 34 points in the first game this month - a 113-107 victory over Brooklyn at home. The Nets responded with wins in five of their next seven games but they blew a 19-point lead in a 115-113 loss to Orlando at home Monday night, cutting their lead over the Magic to 1 1/2 games in the race for seventh place in the Eastern Conference with Washington sitting in ninth.
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: YES, NBCS Washington
ABOUT THE NETS (26-30): Brooklyn had a streak of five straight home wins - all by double digits - coming into Monday's matchup, and it was up 67-48 early in the third against an Orlando team that had lost nine of its last 12, making the collapse all the more surprising. "We all know what happened. There wasn't much to talk about," guard Spencer Dinwiddie told reporters. "It ain't no secret sauce. We got to play defense." Dinwiddie finished with 24 points and eight assists for the Nets, who gave up 74 points in the second half against the league's 29th-ranked offense (104.2 points per game).
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (20-36): Beal achieved his back-to-back milestone hours after Bryant's memorial service in Los Angeles, and the timing of it was not lost on him. "Oh, man, that's crazy," Beal said when told he was the first to accomplish the feat since Bryant did it at the tail end of a four-game 50-point streak in March of 2007. "Didn't know that. That's who Kobe was. That was his drive, and that ceremony today just brought the feeling, the tears all back again." Shabazz Napier provided some support for Beal in Monday's loss with a season-high 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting off the bench.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Wizards C Thomas Bryant (foot) rested Monday and is averaging just six points and five rebounds in two games since returning from a four-game absence.
2. Nets SG Garrett Temple had 18 points and five assists off the bench Monday after recording his first career double-double two nights earlier in a win over Charlotte.
3. Dinwiddie scored 26 points in 31 minutes off the bench in the loss at Washington earlier this month.