Going into this one, the Wizards were riding one of their best stretches of the past several seasons.
They had just beat the Bucks in Milwaukee with a CJ McCollum buzzer-beater, they’ve won four of their
last seven, and three of their last four games. With a 119-99 win over the Brooklyn Nets, make that four wins in the last five — an impressive turn-around for the young Wizards.
Especially impressive has been the rise of Alex Sarr, who had a couple terrific games lately. More on that below.
The Wizards stormed out of the gates against the lowly Brooklyn Nets, hitting all kinds of shots from all kinds of ranges, and built a 37-24 first quarter lead when Justin Champagnie hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.
McCollum continued right where he left, connecting on 4-5 from the field for 10 points in just eight first quarter minutes.
The second quarter remained balanced, with the Wizards edging the Nets 27-26 in that period, with the teams going to the locker rooms with the Wizards up by 14.
The improved defense from the last several games carried over to this first half.
The third quarter was pretty much a replay of the first quarter, with the Wizards outscoring the Nets 32-23 and take a 23-point lead. The scent of garbage time came early in this one.
In the fourth quarter, the Nets took a take page out of the Wizards book and had one of those patented Wizards’ “come-from-behind” runs to cut the lead a bit, but never seriously endanger the outcome of the game.
McCollum scored a calm 17 points in 31 minutes (that does seem a lot given how much garbage time was available for the youngsters). Sarr had another solid game with 19 points and 6 rebounds. The leading scorer was Champagnie off the bench. He scored 20 on 9-12 shooting from the field.
For the Nets, nobody had more than 14 points. Interestingly, four different players scored 14: Ziaire Williams, Day’Ron Sharpe, Terance Mann, and Drake Powell.
Next, the Wizards continue their home stand against the the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.
