Wizards seek season sweep of Pistons (Mar 28, 2018)
Bradley Beal ripped his team's effort and focus after the Washington Wizards lost three straight games.
Beal and everyone around the team were much more chipper following their 116-106 victory over San Antonio on Tuesday night. Washington built a 22-point lead after three quarters and coach Scott Brooks didn't have to play anyone more than 28 minutes.
"I enjoyed it," Beal told the Washington Post. "It's always good to be able to be back there, get a little rest every now and then. We should have had a lot of games like this leading up to this point. But you take them when you can."
The Wizards will try to carry that momentum to Detroit, where they face the Pistons on Thursday night.
Washington avenged an eight-point road loss to the Spurs, which started the three-game slide. It also fell to Denver and lottery-bound New York during that stretch, prompting Beal to say "this isn't even remotely acceptable."
What the Wizards did on Tuesday was highly acceptable to their coach. Washington had seven players in double figures, shot 54.1 percent and assisted in 33 of 46 field goals.
"It's good to see 33 assists," Brooks said during his postgame press conference. "That's what we want to keep doing. We want to keep moving the basketball. We want to (make) an extra pass, good-to-great shots, and we did that."
The Southeast Division-leading Wizards (41-33) will try to sweep the four-game series from the Pistons (34-40). The first three games were played prior to Detroit's blockbuster trade with the Los Angeles Clippers for power forward Blake Griffin in late January.
The Pistons have won four of their last five games to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. They trail Milwaukee by five games with eight remaining for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
All of the recent victories have come against teams who will sit out the playoffs: Sacramento, Phoenix, Chicago and the Los Angeles Lakers. Detroit is 3-1 since point guard Reggie Jackson returned from a severe ankle sprain suffered the night after Christmas.
That has coach Stan Van Gundy feeling better about the team's long-range prospects.
"He was healthy his first full year here and we won 44 games and we didn't have nearly the talent around him then that we do now," he told MLive. "And then last year he had to come back in the middle of the season (knee tendinitis) and then this year he started off and we were 19-14. We know, it's been demonstrated. If we can keep him healthy, we got a chance to be really good."
Jackson scored 20 points in 28 minutes during the 112-106 triumph over the Lakers on Monday. He showed increased confidence in the ankle, dribble-driving to the rim more often instead of settling for jump shots.
"It's gradually getting better," Jackson told MLive. "I'm getting more explosion. I'm just trying to attack and take what the defense gives me, go downhill and find ways for my teammates to get open shots. And if they leave me open, continue attacking and get shots for myself as well."
