Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal doesn’t make it out the first round in his second-ever three-point contest at NBA All-Star Weekend.
Bradley Beal fittingly represented the Washington Wizards in this year’s NBA All-Star three-point contest. Earlier in the day, when asked what was the key to doing well in this competition, the All-Star guard answered “confidence”.
Confidence is a very familiar trait with this shooting guard. He is averaging 37 percent from three-point range, and is having the best season of his NBA career.
However, Beal started off sluggish and only scored 15 points, not enough to reach the final round.
He started slow, like really slow. In fact, the first-time All-Star failed to make a single shot from the first rack. After finally sinking the first ball of his second rack, Beal continued to struggle, missing the remaining balls in the rack.
Every great shooter has an off-night, and Saturday was just one of those nights.
Here’s a clip of his round.
.@RealDealBeal23 puts up 15 PTS in his 1st #JBL3PT run! pic.twitter.com/0tRHQjhwmp
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 18, 2018
Before the contest, Beal was confident he had learned from his past mistakes after finishing second to guard Marco Belinelli in 2014. His strategy this go-around was to save the rack full of moneyballs for the second to last position.
Beal said he “loves the wings,” so it was no surprise that his most successful rack on Saturday was the right wing. Staying true to his strategy, he made four out of five from this moneyball rack and had 12 points heading into the final position (the wing).
The final rack was unkind, however, as he only knocked down two shots including the final moneyball.
Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns won the contest with 28 points.
The fact that Beal earned his All-Star stripes while representing the Wizards is a win in and of itself.
He will look to make up for the performance in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game at 8 p.m. on TNT.