Wizards can't afford to look past struggling Mavs (Nov 07, 2017)
WASHINGTON -- John Wall is the Washington Wizards' headliner, but the play of Bradley Beal, Wall's backcourt partner, is forcing a change on the marquee.
The wing guard took over leading-man duties Sunday during a needed road win with the injured Wall sidelined. The Wizards' next challenge is to avoid looking past the Dallas Mavericks, owners of the NBA's worst record.
The Wizards (5-4) overcame back-to-back, defense-optional home losses and Wall's absence for a skid-stopping 107-96 road win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. They did so behind Beal, who scored 38 points on 16-of-26 shooting, including 4-of-6 success on 3-point attempts. Otto Porter had 19 points.
Prior to the win, Washington had lost four of five after opening the season 3-0.
Beal's production was no one-off. He had 40 points Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns. His 36 in the 130-122 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday were only overshadowed by the 57 scored by LeBron James. The five-year veteran is averaging a career-high 25.7 points on the young season.
"It's not a fluke. He's one of the best guards in the league," Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. "He scores in so many places on the floor so it's hard to double-team him, and we move him around in our offense so they don't get a daily dose of the same thing."
The Mavericks (1-10) are looking to get off their current and unwanted loop. Dallas has dropped six in a row, including a 112-99 road loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.
If history is a guide, the chance for a turnaround is high. Dallas swept the two-game series from Washington last season and has won 13 of the teams' past 14 matchups.
Washington let Toronto cut a 19-point lead to three in the fourth quarter but never trailed despite playing without Wall, who injured his shoulder against Cleveland. The four-time All-Star is expected to return for the Mavericks' lone appearance of the season in Washington.
Beal possesses a textbook jump shot, but a more forceful approach on drives to the basket and getting to the free-throw line fueled the scoring surge. That mindset was on display from the start against the Raptors.
"The biggest thing was that I knew that they would be keying in on me one way or another, so as best as I could, I had to get some shots, be as aggressive as possible, continue to create for my teammates and get shots for everybody," Beal said.
Making shots is among the many problems for Dallas. The Mavericks are next to last in the NBA in field-goal percentage (.420) and 28th in scoring at 97.9 points per game. They also are allowing opponents to sink 48 percent of their shot attempts.
The matchup against Washington is Dallas' only game for a seven-day stretch. The optimistic view is the break will allow for needed fine-tuning.
"We haven't had a practice in a long time because of the way the schedule has fallen," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle told the Dallas Morning News. "That's a very important practice for us, to shore some things up, to work on avoiding the catastrophic turnovers, do a better job of rebounding the ball, those kinds of things."
Dallas was outrebounded 48-31 by Minnesota. Rookie Dennis Smith Jr. scored 18 points and Harrison Barnes had 17 in the loss.
The balanced Mavericks have seven players, including Dirk Nowtizki, averaging at least 10 points per game. All seven are shooting under 44 percent from the field. Opponents aren't having such issues against Dallas' defense.
"Now we've got time to regroup a little bit and work on some stuff, just find our game," Nowitzki told the Dallas Morning News. "On the defensive end, we've got to be better. At the end of the day, that's going to help our offense. Hopefully this week we get a couple of good practices in. The schedule remains really, really tough, but at least we've got time to work on some stuff."
