Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
The Wizards have had their share of ups and downs this season, but tonight everything was up, including their first half scoring of 80 points, the most this season in the first half of a game.
Bradley Beal who seems to be returning to his old self after spending quite a time out with injury and tonight he finished with 32 points to lead the way for the Wizards.
“I think our biggest thing is being healthy,” Beal said. “This is our team. You can’t make any adjustments now. You’ve got to ride it out throughout the rest of the year.”
The big difference in the game tonight was the Wizards shot 70 percent from the field all the way through the third quarter of the game. Not even some of the best teams in the league are able to battle back from 20 plus points down in two quarters when the opposing team shoots that well from the floor.
“We talked about it at halftime — we’re not going to shoot 70% all game,” Washington coach Wes Unseld Jr. said. “But we still shot pretty well. That was kind of the messaging. Don’t get complacent with just making shots.”
Tyrese Haliburton scored 21 points and Myles Turner had 20 for Indiana, which has lost 15 of its last 17.
“I said to these guys that you gave to start strong and finish strong,” said Pacers Head Coach Rick Carlise said after the game. “We played strong in the second half, but there are 48 minutes in a game and that was the difference tonight.”
Even with the Wizards woes over the past two weeks, they remain just 5 games out of first place in the Southeast Division behind Miami and tonight they were able to pull even with Chicago for that 9th and final playoff spot with the second half of the season right around the corner.
Some big take aways tonight for the Wizards. They had 18 turnovers to Indiana’s eight and allowed 27 second-chance points, but none of that made much difference with Washington shooting such an incredible percentage. The Wizards shot 73% from 2-point range, 46% from 3 and 86% on free throws.
Washington hits the road for three games before the All Star break next weekend and returns home on February 24th to face the Knicks.
