Wizards vs. Rockets final score: Washington spoils Wall’s return in 131-119 victory

The Washington Wizards spoiled John Wall highly-anticipated return to D.C. with a 131-119 win over the Houston Rockets. The Rockets came into the games shorthanded without the likes of Christian Wood, PJ Tucker, and Eric Gordon in addition to being losers of five straight games.

For the Wizards, it seemed like this was a set up for winnable game, but what stood out throughout the first half, was the lack of carry over from the Wizards game on Sunday against the Celtics, in the first half. The Wizards gave up 69 points before half to the Rockets. This is coming off the team’s best defensive performance of only giving up 91 points on Sunday.

In the 2nd half the Wizards defense tightened up and held the Rockets to 21.6 percent 3 point range for the game. Wizards pull out a 131-119 victory over the Rockets and look to finish their home stand on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets before heading to the West Coast for a long road trip.

Takeaways

John Wall was back in form

Wall had it going early and took over early on in his heralded return to the city where he started his career. He had 22 points and got 7 assists............in the first half alone. Wall finished with 29 points and 9 assists. The Wizards clamped down defensively, but Wall also settled for a lot of jumpers in the 2nd half. Wall has notably shot poorly in the 2nd half of games this season, and this game was no exception.

John Wall Tribute Video:

Bradley Beal also had a great night

Beal was absolutely on fire tonight, which is not a surprised. He is further adding to the case of he being selected as an Eastern Conference starter for the All-Star game with the NBATV National Audience with eyeballs on this game. Beal finished with 37 points (14-24 FG, 3-8 3FG), 8 rebounds, and 3 assists

Russell Westbrook had a mixed performance

Tonight was the first time this season that Westbrook played on a back to back and the results were mixed. He finished with a triple double (16 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists). but he only shot 6 for 20 and had 5 turnovers to add to it.

Other Notes

• The new starting lineup that includes Mo Wagner and Garrison Mathews is now 2-0. The team has been successful in these two games by getting off to better starts. Can this lineup continue this momentum?
• Deni Avdija struggled to play defense tonight. He racked up 3 quick fouls in the beginning of the 4th that essentially put him on the bench for most of the rest of the quarter. He is only 2nd on the team in fouls per game. Playing defense without fouling is going to be a big point of emphasis for him if he is going to remain in the rotation.