On Sunday night at the Verizon Center, the Washington Wizards trailed the Utah Jazz by five points at halftime.
The Wizards needed to step it up in the second half and they did; scoring 30 points in the third quarter before getting their fourth straight victory with a 93-84 win over the Jazz. Bradley Beal led the way for the Wizards with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists, but five Wizards' players finished in double-digit scoring.
The win is the fourth straight for the Wizards and they have now improved to an eastern conference best (with the Raptors-Knicks game pending) 17-6 record.
Here's what we learned:
Professor Miller has extended his office hours into the winter
Lesson number one: offensive rebounding
Professor Miller making his case to the tenure committee.
— William Stokes (@William_Stokes) December 15, 2014
Reminder: HE'S THE OLDEST PLAYER IN THE NBA. RT "@nbilka: Andre Miller, who came into the game shooting 62% on the season, is 5-5 tonight"
— Ben M (@BenMehicNBA) December 15, 2014
Miller actually finished the game shooting five-of-six from the floor, but we'll allow a mulligan on that miss for The Professor. He finished with 10 points to go along with three rebounds and three assists and continues to be a valuable asset to this Wizards team as a third guard.
Beal is becoming the go-to closer
When the Wizards' 15-point fourth quarter lead began to dwindle away against the Jazz, Bradley Beal stepped up and closed out the win, scoring the last four points for the Wiz to give them a 10-point lead. Last week, Beal hit the game winner against Orlando, and against the Clippers he scored 11 points in the fourth quarter. When the Wizards signed Paul Pierce in the off-season, many fans were hoping he would be a guy the Wizards could lean on late, but it looks like some of The Truth's magical fourth quarter powers are rubbing off on the Wizards' young shooting guard.
John Wall; stat-machine
The Wizards point guard was all over the floor tonight and made his presence felt in multiple ways. In addition to his scoring (16 points), his passing (eight assists) and his defense (five steals), Wall got big and hit the boards and blocked some shots, grabbing six rebounds and blocking three shots. With games like this where Wall is able to show off his dominance and versatility it is becoming harder and harder for folks to ignore how great of a player he is becoming. Since Gary Payton, no guard has ever won the defensive player of the year award, and it's early, but Wall is playing out of his mind right now and is as good of a candidate as any for the award this season
That's three blocks for John Wall. Give him the damn defensive player of the year award already
— Bullets Forever (@BulletsForever) December 15, 2014
He also did stuff like this on the offensive end: