Wizards at Nets final score: Washington loses 113-106 in a close but turnover-filled game

The Washington Wizards (15-26) had a close game against the Brooklyn Nets (29-14), but lost 113-106 on Sunday night.

In most games, when a team shoots a higher percentage and outrebounds the opposition, you can expect that team to win most of the time. Washington shot 53.2 percent from the field, better than Brooklyn’s 48.9 percent. They outrebounded the Nets, 43-35. But they committed 19 turnovers, 12 of which were in the first half. Those turnovers turned into 27 Brooklyn points, 22 of them, also in the first half.

As you might expect, most of those turnovers happened with Washington’s backcourt of Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook, who had 14 combined. Beal in particular was not able to get much going, scoring 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting, but Westbrook had another triple-double with 29 points, 13 assists and 13 rebounds.

Washington had more help on the scoring end tonight from their starters with Rui Hachimura scoring 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds while Alex Len added 20 more points and had nine rebounds. But their bench players minus Robin Lopez (12 points) were very quiet. Raul Neto and Deni Avdija were scoreless.

For Brooklyn, Blake Griffin made his debut where he played 15 minutes off the bench and scored 2 points. Like Washington, Brooklyn’s starting backcourt of Kyrie Irving and James Harden were their team’s primary offensive contributors tonight, scoring 28 points and 26 points, respectively. But they only committed four combined turnovers.

The Wizards will stay in New York City for the next few days since they will face the New York Knicks for their next two games on Tuesday, Mar. 23 and Thursday Mar. 25. See you then.