Bradley Beal broke a tie with literally a tenth of a second left on the game-clock with two clutch free-throws as the Washington Wizards were able to pull off the 130-128 against the Denver Nuggets.
The Wizards elected not to foul after using their final foul to give in regulation at the 5.9 second mark. Because of that, that gave the Nuggets the opportunity to tie up the game, as Jamal Murray proceeded to hit the 30-foot three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in the game.
“We’ve had a couple of mess-ups in that situation throughout this year and then we had a few of them in practice,” head coach Scott Brooks said in the postgame press conference. “So I wasn’t confident enough to do it again.”
After Rui Hachimura completed a three-point play following a powerful one-handed slam off the outlet pass that put Washington up by 13 with 4:39 left in the game, it seemed like the Wizards had all of the momentum and were going to easily pull away with the victory. However, the Nuggets then went on a 17-4 run led by eight points from Murray to set up a tie ballgame with 30.8 seconds on the game clock, which ultimately set up the dramatic finish.
Davis Bertans, who has struggled recently, finished with career-highs of 35 points and nine threes in this one.
“Those couple of months have been frustrating as hell,” Bertans said. “I can’t sleep at night.”
Robin Lopez was the unsung hero for the Wizards in this one, as the man who can only jump about as high as a South Dakota phonebook according to his head coach helped limit the damage by Nikola Jokic.
“The Joker” already had 15 points by the time Lopez checked into the game, but with Lopez being tasked to guard the MVP candidate, Jokic looked anything but that, as he was only able to put up two points in the second quarter. That created an avenue for the Wizards to get right back into this game after being down by as many as 20 points.
“My goal is just to try to make him not quite as comfortable,” Lopez said. “He’s somebody that likes to be really sneaky and really clever out there.”
For the entire game, Lopez held Jokic to 3-of-7 shooting from the field and forced him into three turnovers while guarding him for a total of 4:02 minutes of game action. His head coach took notice of the 13-year veteran’s performance, as he even proclaimed that it saved them the game.
“He’s a big, big man,” Brooks said. “He’s awkward. I just love the way he plays. And he has a great personality. He’s the favorite. All the players love him. The coaching staff loves him.”
The Wizards have been looking much better as a group out there lately, as they’re 3-0 since their dreadful loss to the New York Knicks. With a tough West Coast swing coming up, the Wizards picked the right time to get hot, as they’re going to need to continue to do all the right things they’ve been doing lately to have any shot of a win over their next few games.
