Bradley Beal joins Washington Wizards legends in 10,000-point club

Bradley Beal has scored a lot of points for the Washington Wizards during his NBA career. You can count on one hand the number of players that have scored more for the franchise.

Bradley Beal needed just 19 points when the Washington Wizards played the Orlando Magic to move into a very prestigious group of former players. Considering Beal scored 44 points in each of his last two games, and 30 or more in four of his last six, 19 points seemed like a given. Judging by the prop bets from Action Network, 19 points was at least expected.

And it was achieved. Beal scored his 19th point of the game in the fourth quarter. With those points, he eclipsed 10,000 career points for the Washington Wizards. He joins Elvin Hayes, Jeff Malone, Wes Unseld, and John Wall as the only players in franchise history to achieve such a feat.

Beal is the third player from his draft class to pass the 10,000 point plateau. Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis have both scored into the six figures since being drafted with Beal in the 2012 NBA Draft. Beal is the only one of those three not to be named to an All-NBA team.

Despite leaving Orlando with another L in the loss column, Beal made sure to put on a show on his record-setting night.

The Wizards came into their first divisional matchup of the season, averaging 117.7 points per game, third-best in the NBA. The Magic, however, have the NBA’s stingiest defense. Before their matchup with the Wizards, they were still allowing less than 100 points per game on average, an NBA-leading mark. Something had to give.

Even as Orlando secured the victory, it was the Magic’s defense that seemed to disappeared late in the game. Or maybe it was just that Bradley Beal showed up.

Beal led a furious Washington Wizards comeback down the stretch, scoring 15 of his points in the game’s final frame. After the Wizards trailed by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter, Beal’s three-pointer with 1:01 left cut the Magic lead to just one. But that’s the closest it would get. 125-121 was the final in this one.

Beal finished the night with 34 points, raising his all-time scoring total to 10,015 points. He trails Wes Unseld by 609 points for 4th all-time in franchise history. Beal, who is currently averaging over 29 points per game, can reach him in just a couple dozen games. Next on the list after Unseld? Teammate John Wall, who has scored 10,879 points. Depending on when Wall returns from his injury, Beal could pass him soon, too.