Wizards at Nuggets final score: Washington finishes road trip with 112-110 win

The Washington Wizards pulled off a big win on the final game of their four-game West Coast road trip. The Wizards were able to win this game without Davis Bertans, who scored 35 points last week against this same Denver Nuggets team in DC.

The game started off very ugly as both teams struggled to get it going offensively. The Wizards were able to break out of the funk first, as the Nuggets could not get anything going in the first half. For the half, Denver shot a shade under 40 percent while committing 10 turnovers. The Nuggets would end up with 18 turnovers for the game. This came a game after the Nuggets were heralded for setting an NBA record of 1 turnover in Wednesday’s victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

In the second half, however the Nuggets would get it going more offensively with a big 3rd quarter that saw them shoot 13 for 22 from the field, including shooting 8 for 16 from 3. As the game moved closer to the 4th, it looked like the Nuggets were waking up and were ready to take over as they maintained a lead for the early parts of the 4th. The Wizards, however, hit some timely shots, and got a critical stop in the final seconds to put them in position to win the game. And if we’re being honest the decision making by the Nuggets in the closing moments didn’t hurt either.

Takeaways

Raul Neto played smart basketball and with tremendous hustle

Neto played well in his time in the game, providing a spark off the bench. He filled the stat sheet with good passing, timely shooting and solid defense. Tonight, he had 15 points, 4 assists to go with a career-high 5 steals. One of his steals in particular summed up his impact on this game.

Bradley Beal was super efficient

Beal scored 33 points on 19 shots tonight. He made it look easy, hitting timely shots. There were times when the offense went on a couple of 3+ minute droughts, but his ability to score in a pinch allowed the Wizards to continue to be in control of the game for large portions of the game.

Transition defense exposes inconsistent effort

Wizards played poor transition defense through out the game. The stats seemed to bear that out, as Denver outscored the Wizards 23-8 in fast break points. For as many strides as the Wizards have made on defense, there has still been moments where they go back to some of their bad habits. This game showed it, but the Wizards were fortunate to walk away with the victory.

Other Notes:

• With Davis Bertans unavailable for this game, Troy Brown Jr. got his first minutes on the court in 6 games. This is the first game he has played at least 10 minutes since the February 12th game against the New York Knicks.
• Wizards complete the West Coast road trip with a 3-1 record and swept the series against Denver for the season.