Wizards 91, Magic 89
Bradley Beal’s basket at the buzzer off a lobbed inbounds pass from Andre Miller on the left sideline gave visiting Washington its sixth victory in its last seven games.
Beal came off a pick and got to the rim to convert Miller’s pass that came with less than a second left for the Wizards, who trailed by as many as eight in the fourth quarter. John Wall recorded 21 points and 11 assists while Nene scored 12, Kris Humphries had 11 and Marcin Gortat added 10 for Washington.
Victor Oladipo led the way with 17 points and Tobias Harris contributed 15 for the Magic, who have dropped seven consecutive games to the Wizards. Elfrid Payton registered 12 points off the bench while Kyle O’Quinn and Channing Frye had 10 apiece for Orlando, which fell to 2-6 at home.
The Wizards led by as many as nine early in the second quarter, but Payton tallied eight points to spark the Magic as they pulled within 45-44 at intermission. Orlando pushed its lead to 72-63 when Payton found Dewayne Dedmon for an alley-oop dunk before settling for an eight-point advantage going to the fourth.
Nene’s dunk and a steal followed by a layup from Wall cut Washington’s deficit to four and Rasual Butler’s 3-pointer closed the gap to 85-82 with 2:46 to go. Two straight baskets by Wall pulled the Wizards within 89-88 with 32 seconds remaining and Butler made 1-of-2 free throws with 16 ticks left before Oladipo missed a jumper to set up Beal’s heroics.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Orlando C Nikola Vucevic (sprained lower back), who is averaging 18.6 points and 11.7 rebounds, sat out his fifth consecutive game but coach Jacque Vaughn told reporters he is making progress. … The Wizards made only 4-of-9 from the free-throw line, but shot 50.6 percent from the field. … Dedmon finished with six points, seven rebounds and two blocks off the bench.