Wizards vs. Grizzlies final score: Washington picks up big 92-83 win on road in Memphis

For the first time in 10 years, the Wizards won in Memphis, defeating the Grizzlies 92-83 Saturday.

Washington quite literally had a hold on this game from the beginning, taking a 22-18 lead with 2:36 left in the first quarter and never looking back.

In the process of winning their first straight game, John Wall had 18 points and 14 assists, Bradley Beal scored 20 points despite missing all six of his three-point attempts, and Drew Gooden dropped 16 while filling in for Nene.

Here's three things I took away from this game.

Otto Porter Jr. might be hitting his stride

OK, I'm not saying Porter is starting to peak, or anything close to that. But for as far as he'll go this season, Porter might be playing his best basketball possible right now.

With Paul Pierce resting, Porter got the start after scoring 15 or more points in three straight games.

He shot just 3-for-7 from the floor for seven points, but did have three steals and six rebounds in about 29 minutes of action.

In his past four games, Porter has made six threes (to compare, he only made five threes in all of March) and has eight steals.

It might still be a little much to say that Porter should replace Pierce in the starting lineup on a permanent basis, considering how experienced Pierce is and how much fire he'll likely bring in the postseason, but it's great to see Wall developing a relationship with Porter, and to see Porter developing as a shooter.

This was a legit win

In the past two games, the Wizards had only beaten the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, who combined, have only won 32 basketball games this season.

Memphis, on the other hand, has 52 wins this season and is battling for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

This isn't the same Grizzlies team we saw early on in the season, considering they've been about a .500 team in the past month, but this is a quality win after five of their past six wins had come against sub-.500 opponents (the only other one being the Trail Blazers).

Memphis came into this game holding their opponents to 44.3 percent shooting, 35 percent shooting from beyond the arc and had the fifth most efficient defense in the league, according to John Hollinger's ratings over at ESPN.

Washington, who has the 16th most efficient offense, shot 36.4 percent from three and 48.1 percent from the floor.

Four different Wizards scored in double figures, and even Gooden contributed 16 points and three threes.

Unfortunately, the Wizards were still taking too many long twos at times and were settling for shots, which almost allowed the Grizzlies to get back into this one at various points in the third quarter, but overall the offense played well against a great defense.

Wall and Ramon Sessions played together for a bit, putting together some great drives to the hoop, and five different Wizards made a shot from beyond the arc.

Overall, a strong showing on both sides of the ball for Washington against a very good team.

The Wiz still need to get to the line more often

Heading into Saturday, the Wizards were attempting just 21.6 free-throws per game, the eighth fewest of any team.

Some of those teams below Washington in that category are title contenders (Atlanta, Golden State), but Washington isn't as nearly as good of a shooting team as those two. The Wizards need to get to the line more often to be effective in the playoffs, unless Beal, Rasual Butler and Pierce are suddenly going to start shooting 40 percent from three.

Toronto, a likely opponent for Washington in the first round of the playoffs, ranks sixth in the league in free-throw attempts, and Chicago, the other possibility, is third.

Saturday, the Wizards attempted just 10 free throws all night. Against the Knicks, they attempted 12 and they had 22 in the win over the Sixers.

That simply won't be enough in the playoffs. Wall didn't attempt a single free throw against the Sixers or Knicks and had eight games in March when he attempted five or fewer free throw attempts.

RIP, Kevin Seraphin

This all came on a night that we unfortunately lost Kevin Seraphin to a Jeff Green dunk.

(Vine via Hoop District)