Subscribe
Follow Us
The Washington Wizards have had a teeter-totter season, managing to recover enough from a crushing 10-game losing streak in December to put themselves in position to sneak into the play-in tournament. And on Wednesday night, it seemed like the Wizards were well on their way to another victory after three quarters, especially after Kristaps Porzingis dropped a historic, career-best performance, and Kyle Kuzma lit up the scoreboard in an efficient manner.
However, they ran out of steam to end the game, and they ended up falling to the Atlanta Hawks, 122-120, after Trae Young managed to take control late in the game. One major culprit behind the Wizards' inability to keep up offensively with the Hawks in the final period was Bradley Beal's suboptimal play.
In particular, while Beal had seven points in the fourth quarter, he managed to accrue that total on an unsightly 1-6 shooting from the field. He even missed a crucial freebie with less than a minute left in the game that would have cut the Hawks' lead to one. Nevertheless, Kyle Kuzma came to Beal's defense as he trusts the Wizards' supermax guy to deliver in the fourth quarter more often than not.
“At the end of the day, that's what we live and die with. A lot of times we have the ball in the 4th and it’s Brad’s ball. It’s his time in the 4th and it’s his team so we just live and die by it and it’s cool. Whatever happens you just live with it,” Kuzma said following the game, per Hoop District.
Kyle Kuzma on if the Wizards 4th quarter offense is too predictable
“A lot of times we have the ball in the 4th and it’s Brad’s ball. It’s his time in the 4th and it’s his team so we just live and die by it and it’s cool. Whatever happens you just live with it.” pic.twitter.com/XmHZNpzNsq
— Hoop District (@Hoop_District) March 9, 2023
Bradley Beal finished the night with 24 points on 8-19 shooting from the field, not a particularly characteristic night for a player shooting above 50 percent from the field this season. In fact, in this season alone, the Wizards' talisman has scored 7.4 points per game on 52 percent shooting from the field in fourth quarters this season.
That scoring average in the payoff period ranks eighth in the entire association, behind marquee names such as Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. (Kyrie Irving leads the league in fourth quarter scoring, at 9.6 per game.)
Nonetheless, the Wizards will need Beal to play at a much better level than he did against the Hawks if they were to hold off the likes of the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers for a play-in berth.
