Carrying a rare winning streak, the Washington Wizards will look to complete a 3-for-3 road swing when they face the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday in New York.
Washington (8-41) heads into the contest with the worst record in the NBA, having taken a 16th straight loss for the second time this season when they fell 134-96 to the visiting Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 30.
However, on Saturday, the Wizards scored their first win since Jan. 1 when they prevailed 105-103 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis. Washington followed it up with a 124-114 victory over the host Charlotte Hornets on Monday to secure just the second winning streak of the 2024-25 campaign.
Washington has not won three straight games since last March.
“You want to be a consistent player, a consistent team? It’s about the work, it’s about the process,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe said following the Monday win. “Our guys are terrific with that. It’s something I don’t even think about because it’s just who they are now, and a lot of guys are like that.”
He added, “Keep it going.”
Corey Kispert scored a season-high 25 points on Monday, while Bilal Coulibaly added 26 points, his top total since he produced 27 on Dec. 13. Washington is 2-1 when Coulibaly scores at least 26 points, and three of the Wizards’ eight wins have come when he notched at least 20 points.
Washington is 2-2 in Kispert’s four games of 20 or more points.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn (17-33) enters the Wednesday matchup with a three-game winning streak, matching its best run of the campaign. The latest two victories came against the Western Conference’s third-place team, the Houston Rockets.
After downing the Rockets 110-98 in Texas on Saturday, the Nets scored a 99-97 home victory over Houston on Tuesday thanks to a stunning rally in the final 10 seconds.
Brooklyn trailed by four points before Keon Johnson sank a 3-pointer with 8.1 seconds left. Tosan Evbuomwan then stole the inbounds pass, and D’Angelo Russell sank the game-winning 3-pointer with 3.4 seconds remaining. The Rockets’ Jalen Green missed a desperation 3-point attempt in the last second.
Johnson’s 22 points led injury-depleted Brooklyn in the first leg of its midweek back-to-back. The Nets were without Noah Clowney (ankle), Cam Thomas (hamstring) and Cameron Johnson (ankle). Bojan Bogdanovic, who has yet to suit up this season, is moving closer to a return from offseason foot surgery.
Generating consistent offense has been a struggle for Brooklyn amid lingering issues and roster changes this season, as the Nets rank next to last in the NBA in scoring (105.4 points per game).
However, Brooklyn has been solid on defense, allowing 112.1 points per game, which ranked 12th among the league’s 30 teams. The Nets held their opponent to fewer than 100 points in all three games during the current streak, which began on Jan. 29 with a 104-83 rout at Charlotte.
Johnson has been a key factor on both sides of the ball, particularly in the past month. The Tuesday performance was his fifth time scoring 20 or more points since Jan. 10, bumping his season average from 8.0 to 9.7 points per game.
He also registered his fifth multiple-steal game since Jan. 10 with two thefts on Tuesday.
“(I am) someone who is going to come in and constantly defend to their fullest, night in and night out, but on the offensive end, (be) someone you can trust with the ball in their hands,” Johnson said. “Each night I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable with the different roles I’m given.”
–Field Level Media
