Wizards vs. Thunder final score: Beal and Westbrook come up big in 129–109 win

The Washington Wizards’ 129–109 win versus the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night started with back-to-back giveaways and a pair of Russell Westbrook rebounds. It was sloppy play from the Wizards — they had eight points and four turnovers early in the quarter. But after Raul Neto (15 points) hit an uncontested three, OKC called for a quick timeout. The Thunder started draining threes while the Wizards went cold. After two and a half minutes of misses, Bradley Beal — 33 points on 12-for-24 shooting — finally made a field goal.

Late in the quarter, Davis Bertans, who finished the game with 12 points and four deep shots, remedied Washington’s three-point woes, knocking down two deep shots. Chandler Hutchison, who has played sparingly since being acquired from Chicago at the trade deadline, hit a three at the buzzer to put his side up one at the break.

Westbrook’s strong first bled into the second, as he missed a layup, tipped the ball away from two defenders, saved the possession and knocked down a corner three. The Wizards (26–33) then went on another scoring drought and were down by as many as six points. Needing their two stars, Westbrook and Beal scored 24 of the team’s 34 second-quarter points. And even though they went up two after 24 minutes, Washington committed 11 first-half turnovers.

It was eight early points for the away side. Westbrook and Beal both hit shots from behind the arc. Neto then wove past Darius Bazley (20 points) for a difficult layup, which forced another Thunder (20–40) timeout. The first portion of the third saw Oklahoma City go cold; the home side didn’t make a shot for over 200 seconds. A 14-point Washington lead evaporated in the dying stages of the third, but a late surge saw them close out the quarter up 10.

Just 20 seconds into the final frame, Westbrook notched his 28th triple-double after grabbing board number 10 to go with a game- and team-high 37, 11 and 11. Wizards Coach Scott Brooks called for a stoppage with the Thunder storming back midway through the period. After getting an earful, the Wizards upped the lead to 16 — their largest of the game. The advantage ballooned to 18, and Washington picked up their seventh straight win for the first time since January through February of 2017. Theo Maledon had 20 points and Lu Dort had 18 for the Thunder.