Wizards survive Bradley Beal meltdown to take down the Pelicans

Saturday night’s matchup between the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans was one of the better games of the season for the Wiz. They took home their fifth straight win and saw some incredibly encouraging signs from their roster despite both Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma having underwhelming games.

The Wizards got off to a slow start and all signs pointed towards an easy Pelicans win, that was until Corey Kispert and Daniel Gafford started rolling. A three-pointer and key defensive plays turned the tide for the Wiz. This was only capitalized by Deni Avdija subbing into the game.

Avdija came into the game and ran the offense. Not only did he take over the ball handling duties for the team, but he was also aggressive at getting to the rim and made some incredible reads.

In the first three quarters, the ball mostly ran through Deni Avdija, Monte Morris, and Daniel Gafford. This pushed the Wizards to a double-digit lead. They looked amazing for a vast majority of the game.

This all changed in the fourth quarter when Bradley Beal took over.

For whatever reason, Wes Unseld Jr decided to move away from what was working. He moved Deni Avdija from being the main distributor to standing in the corner waiting for the ball. Many would think that they would have established that this is not how to get the best productivity out of the 22-year-old.

Instead, the Wizards started playing through Bradley Beal. Overall, he had an okay game, despite his horrendous shooting splits on the game. This was not the case in the fourth quarter. This did not go the way they wanted it to at all.

Beal took poor shots, turned the ball over, missed free throws, and just let the Pelicans fight and claw their way back into the game. The Wizards went from having a 16-point lead to only leading by 5 with 5 minutes left in the game.

While he would eventually make three key shots to help extend their lead, an and-one mid-range jumper, a top of the key three-pointer, and sinking both free throws after a foul. The other shots Beal took were ill-advised. He was bailed out by the Pelicans taking shots that were just as bad.

Kyle Kuzma also played poorly down the stretch, missing the only shot he took and made some very questionable decisions. That includes fouling on a wide-open dunk attempt with under a minute left in the game. However, he only took one shot and rarely touched the ball on offense, it’s difficult to say he had any input on the near disaster the Wizards faced.

If the Pelicans wouldn’t have started missing their shots, the Wizards would not have won this game and it would have been reflected entirely onto Bradley Beal and his complete and utter meltdown for most of the fourth quarter.