Washington Wizards: Bradley Beal looks to be back on track with back-to-back 44-point games

In case you forgot, Bradley Beal is here to remind you that he’s really good at basketball. Thank God the Washington Wizards re-signed him.

It was a bit of a rough start to the season for Bradley Beal, but the All-Star shooting guard is still one of the NBA’s best scorers. In his last two games, he’s done more than enough to remind us of that.

Beal began his season in a bit of a shooting slump, though his numbers haven’t been terrible by any means. Through the first eight games, Beal averaged 26 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per contest. But his shooting percentages weren’t quite what we’ve come to expect from the Wizards star.

Only once through the first eight games did Beal shoot above 48 percent from the field. Twice during that span, he missed ten or more three-pointers, shooting less than ten percent from three in each of those contests.

In the Wizards’ last two games, Beal has flipped the script and exploded with back to back 44-point performances. For those of you keeping track, that is now three 40-point games for Beal and we aren’t even a quarter of the way into the season.

On his way to 44 points against the Boston Celtics, Beal did a lot of his damage from beyond the arc. He knocked down four of his six three-point attempts and ended up making 63 percent of his shots from the field. Oh, and he added five rebounds and six assists. Unfortunately, the Wizards took the L in that one.

In his very next game, Beal was even more impressive. He tallied a 44-point, 10-assist double-double in a revenge win against a Timberwolves team that was without Andrew Wiggins. This time Beal did most of his damage from the free-throw line and lower, scoring only three points via the long ball. Instead, Beal attacked the basket and went to work in the midrange, knocking down 14 of his 17 two-pointers. He also went to the line 14 times and missed just once.

The offensive explosion in Minnesota was the third time in his career that Beal has notched a 40-point, 10-assist double-double. He has now officially passed John Wall and Gilbert Arenas for the most in franchise history, per Elias Sports. Beal is currently in third place on the list of 40-point games in franchise history.

Beal now has three games of at least 40 points this season. Only he and James Harden have done it more than once.

While Beal is scoring in bunches, but he’s also doing it efficiently. Beal has shot above 50 percent from the floor in three of his ten games this season. In all three of those games, he has scored at least 40 points. When ranking all 40-point games across the NBA this season, only Devin Booker and Brandon Ingram have done it with a better field goal percentage, per Basketball-Reference.

After a shaky start (by his standards), Beal looks to have turned things around. He’s scored 30 or more in four of his last six games. With few, if any, go-to scorers besides Beal on the roster, expect to see more outbursts like this all season long.

Bradley Beal’s just getting warmed up. The rest of the NBA should be on notice.