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Bradley Beal's game thrives more off of playing in a team concept, and he's not exactly the guy who's going to play one-on-one in iso sets order to score points. But I was still pleased that he had a very solid Rising Stars Challenge nevertheless, scoring 21 points by making 7-13 field goal attempts and 4-8 from three. He also had five rebounds and four assists.
Beal's first made field goal was off a layup early in the first half which gave Team Hill a score of 15-13. I felt that he was a bit tentative early on whenever he did have the ball in his hands, where he passed it to other players early. But he did score eight points late in the first half, including this dunk with just over two minutes left which gave him double figures for the game.
At the end of the first half, Beal had 13 points on 5-9 shooting, three rebounds, one assist, one steal, 3-5 from three and was the second highest leading scorer to Andre Drummond who was sensational in the first ten minutes of the half. Drummond ultimately had 17 points and 11 rebounds in the half, and finished with 30 points and 25 rebounds overall, which earned him the MVP of the game, where the trophy was dropped right before he could hold it!
That's a Shaqtin' a fool moment right there.
In the second half we saw a one on one duel between Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dion Waiters between the eight and six minute marks which definitely got the crowd into it. This included one stretch when they traded four straight three pointers between the 6:55 and 6:16 marks. They combined to score 67 points for the game.
Even though Beal didn't have a monster second half scoring the ball, he still made some timely baskets in the second, including a three with 1:36 left in the second half to make the score 131-126, and also some additional free throws late in the game to keep the game out of reach for Team Webber.
Overall, I think Beal more than held his own and that makes me happy.
Finally, John Wall was also at the game earlier tonight.
Now, we have one day out of three in the books for NBA All-Star Weekend. Let's hope we see Beal get into a great groove in tomorrow's Three Point Contest and also see John Wall make his mark in the Slam Dunk Contest.
