Early in the fourth quarter, the Washington Wizards(23-40) took an eight-point lead(83-75) against the Miami Heat(41-23) on Sunday. At that time, with Jimmy Butler sidelined with a foot injury(left the game in the third quarter), it appeared that Washington had a decent shot of winning the game.
However, behind the shooting of Duncan Robinson(23 points, 7-11 from three-point land), Kendrick Nunn(18 points), and the all-around play of Bam Adebayo(27 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists), the Heat were able to overcome the loss of Butler and defeat the Wizards 100-89 at Capital One Arena.
With the victory, Miami captures its first road victory since February 1(defeated Magic in Orlando), and the Wizards continue to fall in the standings.
Washington struggled shooting the ball in the fourth quarter, including the second-leading scorer in the NBA, Bradley Beal(23 points), who was 0-9 from the field in the fourth quarter. According to Beal, the offense got stagnant, and Miami’s defense got the job done.
“We just got stagnant. We’ve got to keep moving. I feel like, a lot of times, we were just kind of just watching me. We can’t get caught up in doing that,” Beal said. “They took away all my drives, everything pretty much toward the paint. They wanted to kind of force me to shoot jumpers all night.”
Washington’s playoffs hopes continue to fade. The Wizards are now 5.5 games behind the Magic for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference with only 19 games to play,
On a positive note, Scott Brooks has this team competing on a nightly basis, which is a credit to him and the players, and while they are not winning consistently, this team is fighting. Hopefully, that continues the rest of the way.
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