Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal’s incredible play has propelled the Wizards to an 8-game win streak. This is their longest since Michael Jordan.
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Washington were written off by tons of NBA fans after their terrible start to 2020-21. They were 3-12 and 6-17 through their first third of the season and had little by way of positives. Russell Westbrook was injured and playing like straight garbage on some nights.
Bradley Beal was left to try and salvage the season for the first few weeks as Russ recovered from an injury setback. The Brody soon got back to his element, and the Wizards have a 21-16 record since that low point.
They’ve also compiled an exemplary 16-10 record against West Conference opponents. Some of their performances deserve praise – especially their wins over the Bucks, Nets, Lakers, Jazz and Clippers.
Their recent 8-game streak means that they’re on their longest streak of Ws since the time Michael Jordan staged his second comeback with the Wizards in the 2001-02. Much of this has been attributed to their stars, but the likes of Daniel Gafford and Davis Bertans have also pulled their weight.
Bradley Beal reacts to the Wizards’ longest winning streak since the Michael Jordan era
The Wizards secured a comeback victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, coming out 119-110 victors yesterday. Bradley Beal had a game-high 33 points, but he sees the need for immediate and imminent improvement from his team:
“It’s a blessing, but we don’t pat ourselves on the back or anything like that because we still got our work cut out. Tonight was probably one of our not-so-good nights. Granted, we duked it out and won, but we had a lot of mental lapses and defensive lapses that we shouldn’t have had tonight.”
The Wizards are currently 2 games clear of the Chicago Bulls and are likely to win the battle for 10th seed. Depending on how other results play out, Westbrook and co may also be in play for the 9th or 8th seed, though that seems increasingly unlikely as the season draws to a rapid close.
