Wizards start second half of season with win over Magic originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Wizards got Thomas Bryant back in the lineup and stayed in the win column with a 112-106 win over the Magic on Wednesday at Capital One Arena.
Washington is now on a three-game win streak with its next six games at home.
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Here are a few takeaways from the Wizards’ win:
The second half starts strong
The Wizards got off to a nice start to the second half of their season with the win over the Magic, in the midst of their longest home stretch of the season.
They’ll play their next six games at home to finish out the month — Washington has just one road game left in the month of January.
At 22-20, the Wizards have a nice chance to stack some wins at Capital One Arena while they have the chance. After a strong start to the season, the Wizards have since faded but have the chance to recapture some of that in the coming weeks.
Kuzma keeps scoring
Kyle Kuzma has found another gear of late, as he continued his hot streak with another nice performance against the Magic. He scored 19 points and had 10 rebounds, good for his eighth double-double in his last 11 games.
It's clear Kuzma has grown into the role he thought he could handle in Washington, as he distributed the ball (ending with nine assists) while nearly completing the triple-double.
Thomas Bryant hits the floor again
It was fitting for Bryant that his first shot attempt in more than 365 days was a corner 3-pointer. Naturally, he made it.
Bryant made his season debut Wednesday and tallied 11:30 on the floor with six points and one rebound. It was the first time he’d played since Jan. 2021.
The Wizards will now have a bevy of centers with Daniel Gafford and Montrezl Harrell in the mix as well, and that’ll be a problem for coach Wes Unseld Jr. to navigate moving forward. But that falls under the classification of a good problem to have.
Deep rotation
The Wizards always knew they had reinforcements on the way when the season began, but that looked to be even more impactful than they thought when Kyle Kuzma and the others acquired in the offseason move with the Lakers proved they could handle bigger roles.
Now, those reinforcements have arrived and a few tough decisions have got to be made.
With Bryant and Rui Hachimura in the lineup for the Wizards, they played 11 players against the Magic — and that’s with Bradley Beal in COVID protocols. The Wizards had 45 bench points and, as Beal returns to the lineup in a few days or weeks, they’ll finally have a full roster.
