Bradley Beal led the Washington Wizards with 34 points as they went on to beat the Utah Jazz 125-121, snapping their 24-game home winning streak. Russell Westbrook added a triple-double – 25 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds.
Washington started pulling away early in the fourth quarter, as they built a lead of as many as 19 points. However, with the Wizards leading 109-90 with a little over 8:20 left in the final period, the Jazz answered with an 18-5 run capped off by a wide-open Joe Ingles 3-pointer in the left corner.
With just under 1:30 left in regulation, Westbrook and Daniel Gafford connected on a nice alley-oop off the high pick-and-roll, as that extended the Wizards’ lead to a comfortable nine points.
Donovan Mitchell wasn’t ready to let the Wizards off the hook just yet, however, as he put up five unanswered points for the Jazz to make it a tight game with 50 seconds left in the game.
On the other end, Westbrook dribbled out the clock a little and then converted the pull-up jumper near the top of the free-throw line circle, as Westbrook declared at that moment that the game was over.
While Utah was able to make it a two-point game with 12.3 seconds left on the game clock with Beal’s two misses at the stripe playing a huge factor into that, Beal redeemed himself with two makes to effectively end the Jazz’s late rally.
Mitchell finished with a game-high 42 points. Bojan Bogdanovic finished with a season-high 33 points. Rudy Gobert had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Gafford looking comfortable
While the Jazz looked like they could potentially run away with this game in the first quarter, Gafford came in near the seven-minute mark of the opening period and made his presence felt, which ultimately helped Washington keep Utah from running away with it.
“I’ve got a defensive mindset first and I worry about offense second,” Gafford said.
Gafford finished with 10 of his 15 points in the first including an alley-oop finish on the break off a pass that might’ve been too tough for other guys to handle.
“I like the fact that I can throw the damn ball up to the moon and he’ll go get it,” Beal said. “Even if it’s a bad pass.”
