Rookie Troy Brown led the way for the Wizards with 21 points and 8 rebounds as Washington knocked off the Guangzhou Long-Lions, 140-111 in their final tuneup before the regular season. Devin Robinson added 23 points—many coming on dunks on the jump-out-of-the-gym variety—and Thomas Bryant added 12 points for a Wizards team looking to carry some of this positive momentum into the beginning of the regular season.

Marreese Speights of the Long-Lions came out like someone trying to prove they belong in the NBA. The former Warrior scored 16 points in the first period while shooting 4-5 from three-point range—en route to a 41-point night. As a result, the Long-Lions hung around in the defense-optional first quarter and trailed Washington by just one, 38-37 after one period.

Washington opened the game up in the second quarter with an extended 32-8 run to take a 72-54 lead into halftime. The Wizards forced multiple turnovers in the quarter, creating one fast break opportunity after another. Rookie Troy Brown played a key role, scoring 14 of his 21 points in the quarter.

As expected, Washington’s talent was just too much for Guangzhou. They led by at least 20 points the rest of the game and played only their young guys—aside from Jodie Meeks—in the second half.

With their victory, the Wizards finished preseason with a 4-1 record. They’ll kick off the regular season on Thursday night against the Miami Heat.

Takeaways

A lasting impression from the starters

Yes, it was a preseason game and yes, it was a team from the Chinese Basketball Association but all things considered; that was the best you could ask for from the starters who only played one quarter. Otto Porter hit all four of his field goal attempts (2-2 from three-point range) for 11 points in just 7:47 of action.

Ian Mahinmi continued his impressive preseason performance also chipping in with 11 points in the first period on 5-6 shooting. Once again, he looked light on his feet and decisive in his cuts to the hole tonight which resulted in two easy dunks. He was also active on the offensive glass chasing down two offensive rebounds and finding cutters for easy baskets.

Again, not superior competition by any means, but you couldn’t ask for much more given the circumstances.

Troy Brown has an outstanding game

Brown ended the night 6-of-9 from the field with most of his points coming from close in. More importantly for the rookie, he looked very comfortable with the ball in his hands. After grabbing a defensive rebound, Brown had no issues bringing the ball down court and getting Washington into their set—and even had this nifty pass in transition:

Brown’s scoring tonight was impressive but grabbing eight rebounds, looking comfortable with the ball-handling duties, to go along with four assists and two steals was even more remarkable.

We were reminded that Devin Robinson can fly

Tip Ins

• The Wizards didn’t face much resistance in the paint, racking up 74 points in the paint.
• Washington continued to hoist up three-pointers (35), but struggled from deep only connecting on 10 of them (28.6 percent). They averaged 36 threes per game during the preseason but only shot 27.8 percent.