Four Observations After Wizards Beat Thunder for Fifth Straight Victory

Four observations after Wizards win fifth straight originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

The Wizards earned their fifth-straight victory over the Thunder on Monday with a 119-107 win at Capital One Arena. 

Washington jumped out to a big lead early and, despite a few Oklahoma City pushes throughout the night, the Wizards never trailed.

Here are four observations from the win: 

Scoring spreads out

The Wizards, absent Rui Hachimura, got scoring contributions all over the lineup on Monday.

Bradley Beal led the scoring with 30 points, Davis Bertans added 21 points, Robin Lopez scored 17, Daniel Gafford had 13 and Russell Westbrook had another triple-double with 13 points. 

They didn't necessarily shoot the ball well from deep, but they didn't need to. 

Wizards stay winning

The Wizards are, at least according to their win-loss record of late, playing their best basketball of the season. 

With the win over the Thunder, Washington won their fifth straight game to boost their record to 24-33 with 15 games left to play in the regular season. They got a slight amount of help from the Spurs, who beat the 9th place Pacers, and jumped the Raptors to move into 11th place.

Still, they’ll have more opportunities to make games up down the stretch. Monday was just about keeping pace and staying in the win column.

Bertans arrives

It took until five minutes left in the third quarter for a Wizard not named Bertans to hit a 3-pointer, but that in and of itself showed his worth.

Playing in his first game since April 14 after missing the last two games due to the birth of his son, he went 6-of-12 from the field, all from deep, and had the second-most points on the team with 21. And when Bertans is scoring from deep like he can, the Wizards’ offense is a difficult one to stop. 

While he was the lone contributor to Washington’s 3-point offense in the first half against Oklahoma City, his presence was certainly made known early.

Scoring race comes to Washington

Monday was the last game the Wizards will play at Capital One Arena, and on Wednesday, they’ll be treated to a scoring race that’ll be massively exciting. 

In a game against the 76ers, Steph Curry racked up 49 points. Against the Thunder, Beal put up 30 points. Entering Monday, the two were separated by one-tenth of a point. 

Wednesday will certainly be a show between two of the league's best.

Copyright RSN
Contact Us