Wizards at Magic
The Washington Wizards have not missed a beat since losing All-Star point guard John Wall to a knee injury thanks to the superb play of fellow All-Star Bradley Beal. The Wizards will try to ride Beal's hot shooting touch to a fourth consecutive win when they visit the Orlando Magic on Saturday.
Beal scored 25 of his 27 points in the second half on Thursday to lift Washington to a 122-119 win over the Toronto Raptors -- the team's second consecutive triumph over a playoff contender. "I think in the first half I was trying to get a feel of how they were going to play me, and they were doubling me a lot," Beal told reporters. "... In the second half, I knew that I had to be aggressive as much as possible, to give my teammates confidence and to give us a chance to go on a run and pull out a win. So, I just wanted to stay aggressive, stay confident. Once I saw one go down it was over from there." The Magic dropped three in a row by single digits before breaking through with a 127-105 drubbing of the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. "We've been playing with the pass a bunch of late -- we're really buying into that -- and it's worked a lot for us, but it hasn't resulted in wins," Orlando coach Frank Vogel told reporters after the win. "Tonight, we got red-hot and got the victory. (Winning) is important. You can talk about staying positive and how well we're doing individually and the habits that we're building, but you need results to reinforce what we're doing."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBCS Washington, FS Florida (Orlando)
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (29-22): Washington handed out 30 assists on 44 made field goals in Thursday's win despite being without Wall, who ranks second in the NBA in assists (9.3). "It's fun basketball," Beal told the Washington Post. "Everybody gets a touch, everybody gets shots. It makes life easier. It keeps the locker room close, it keeps the camaraderie going. At the same time, that's the type of team we need to be in order for us to be successful." The Wizards own 97 assists in three games since losing Wall, including 40 in a 129-104 beatdown of Atlanta last Saturday.
ABOUT THE MAGIC (15-35): Veteran forward Marreese Speights scored a team-high 21 points and buried three of the team's 18 3-pointers in Wednesday's victory. "Whenever guys are getting opportunities for wide-open 3s, we all have confidence that they are going to hit them," Speights told the team's website. "We've done a really good job of sharing the ball and getting open looks for guys." Six different players hit multiple 3-pointers against the Lakers, led by small forward Evan Fournier's 5-of-7 effort from beyond the arc.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Magic PF Aaron Gordon (hip flexor) sat out the last two games and is questionable for Saturday.
2. Washington PF Markieff Morris is averaging 19 points over the last four games, raising his season mark to 10.7
3. Beal averaged 23.5 points on 63 percent shooting in a pair of wins over Orlando earlier this season.