Wizards at Nets
The Washington Wizards are just recently beginning to look like the team that advanced to the playoffs last season with some strong play on the defensive end. The Wizards will try to move to .500 and pick up their fourth straight win when they visit the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.
Washington allowed at least 103 points in nine straight games until the recent winning streak, in which the defense is surrendering an average of 97. The Wizards put together the best effort of that stretch in holding the Grizzlies to 3-of-17 from beyond the arc in a 100-91 victory on Wednesday. The Nets nearly had a two-game winning streak of their own but instead dropped a 119-118 overtime decision to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday to fall for the sixth time in seven games. “We have to bring the intensity that we had in the last two games to the next game and carry it over,” Brooklyn forward Thaddeus Young told reporters. “If we keep playing like we’ve been playing, we’re going to win more games.”
TV: 4 p.m. ET, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington), YES (Brooklyn)
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (13-14): Washington is winning despite being without Bradley Beal and Otto Porter Jr., and John Wall is stepping up his play. Wall is averaging 17.7 points and 15 assists in the last three games while Garrett Temple has scored 20 or more in each after not reaching the mark in any of his first 250 games. “We’re playing the way we want to play, I’ll say that,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman told reporters. “But as soon as you think you’re somewhere, sometimes you’re not. So it’s one game at a time.”
ABOUT THE NETS (8-21): The first order of business for the Washington defense will be stopping Young, who went for 29 points on 14-of-20 shooting on Wednesday. “Just a tremendous effort,” Brooklyn coach Lionel Hollins told reporters of Young. “He was just battling. That’s what I like and expect from the whole group and that’s what we got. His numbers stand out over other people, but I thought we got the efforts we needed and the extra efforts.” Young added 10 rebounds in the tight loss and has eight double-doubles in the last 11 games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Nets G Bojan Bogdanovic went 5-of-5 from 3-point range on Wednesday and is shooting 47.2 percent from beyond the arc in December.
2. Washington F Jared Dudley is shooting 66.7 percent from the field over the last five games.
3. The teams split four meetings last season, with Brooklyn earning a 117-80 win in the last meeting on April 10.