The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-26)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5

cruised to 25 points on 9-for-17

shooting and added eight re-

bounds and four assists in 35

minutes, selectively taking his

shots and simply rising up over

smaller Wizards defenders when

challenged.

Neto leaves early

Wizards guard Raul Neto left

the game with just over six min-

utes to play with an apparent

shoulder injury. Unseld had no

update on his status afterward

but said he will be evaluated with-

out specifying whether that

means he will have an MRI exam.

[email protected]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Giannis Antetokounmpo had
30 points, 10 rebounds and nine
assists and Khris Middleton add-
ed 27 points Monday night as the
defending NBA champion Mil-
waukee Bucks beat the Indiana
Pacers, 119-109, in Indianapolis.
Coach Mike Budenholzer held
out two injured starters — c enter
Brook Lopez and guard Jrue Holi-
day — as well as key backup Bobby
Portis. Yet the Bucks still had
enough scoring punch to pull
away from the Pacers, who have
lost three of their first four games
under new coach Rick Carlisle.
Malcolm Brogdon led the Pac-
ers with 25 points and seven as-
sists. Domantas Sabonis had 21
points and 13 rebounds.
Middleton’s four-point play to
close the first-quarter scoring
broke a 3 0-30 tie, and Milwaukee
never trailed again.
The Bucks extended the lead to
as much as 57-46 midway through
the second quarter, then saw Sab-
onis lead the Pacers back, cutting
the margin to 60-57 with a spin-
ning layup. But Milwaukee scored
the final six points of the first half
and used a 12-5 third-quarter run
to take an 83-66 lead.
Indiana cut the deficit to 107-
102 on Justin Holiday’s three-
pointer with 6:21 left in the fourth
but never got any closer.
l HEAT 107, MAGIC 90: Jim-
my Butler had 36 points on 15-for-
21 shooting, Bam Adebayo added
16 points and 13 rebounds, and
Miami pulled away in the fourth
quarter to beat Orlando at home.
Markieff Morris had 16 points
off the Heat bench, and Tyler Her-
ro finished with 13 points, five
rebounds and nine assists.
Miami was 19 for 19 from the
foul line, tying the second-most
makes without a miss in team
history. The Heat was 30 for 30
against Boston on March 24, 1993.
Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs
led Orlando with 15 points, while
Cole Anthony and R.J. Hampton
each added 12 for the Magic.

Butler also had five steals and

did the bulk of his scoring work at

the rim for Miami. He had 11 field

goals by halftime, a career best for

the opening two quarters.

l CELTICS 140, HORNETS

129 (OT): Jayson Tatum scored a

season-high 41 points, Jaylen

Brown added 30 — including an

emphatic dunk in overtime — a nd

visiting Boston handed Charlotte

its first loss of the season.

Dennis Schröder had nine of his

23 points in overtime, and Robert

Williams had 12 points and 16

rebounds in a game that featured

28 lead changes.

Miles Bridges had 25 points and

10 rebounds, and L aMelo Ball add-

ed 25 points on seven three-point-

ers for the Hornets before fouling

out in overtime. Kelly Oubre add-

ed 19 points for Charlotte, which

was seeking its first 4-0 start in

franchise history.

l BULLS 111, RAPTORS 108:

DeMar DeRozan had 26 points

against his former team, Zach

LaVine scored 22, and Chicago

moved to 4-0 for the first time

since 1996-97 by holding off To-

ronto on the road.

Nikola Vucevic scored 17 points

and Lonzo Ball had 15 as the Bulls

won their fourth straight meeting

with the Raptors.

OG Anunoby scored 22 points

as struggling Toronto lost for the

third time in four games.

l HAWKS 122, PISTONS 104:

Trae Young had 32 points and nine

assists, John Collins scored 22,

and Atlanta beat Detroit for its

24th win in its last 30 home

games, including the playoffs, dat-

ing to Feb. 21.

The Pistons’ Kelly Olynyk had 17

of his 21 points in the first half, and

Saddiq Bey scored 21 for Detroit.

l PELICANS 107, TIMBER-

WOLVES 98: Brandon Ingram

scored 27 points, Jonas Valanciu-

nas had 22 points and 23 re-

bounds, and New Orleans beat

Minnesota in Minneapolis for its

first win of the season.

l CAVALIERS 99, NUGGETS

87: Kevin Love scored 22 points,

Jarrett Allen had 21 points and 16

rebounds for his second straight

double-double, and Clev eland

kicked off a five-game road trip by

holding off Denver.

NBA ROUNDUP

Milwaukee tops Indiana

without Lopez, Holiday

BUCKS 119,

PACERS 109

WIZARDS’ NEXT THREE

at Boston Celtics

Tomorrow 7:30 NBCSW

vs. Atlanta Hawks

Thursday7NBCSW

vs. Boston Celtics

Saturda y5NBCSW

Radio: WTEM (980 AM)

but Washington didn’t just lose

track of the 2014 MVP — the

Wizards let nearly all of the Nets

run amok.

Brooklyn scored 38 points in

the first quarter as it ran its of-

fense with little resistance, clock-

ing 11 assists against just one

turnover. Patty Mills was, as ev-

eryone expected, the leading scor-

er with 11 points.

Nothing was falling early for

the Wizards. They ended the first

quarter with just eight field goals

and were particularly sloppy from

three-point range, hitting just 3 of

13 attempts and failing to capture

the momentum that might’ve

been their only hope against a

roster with so many elite scoring

options.

Unseld threw a few different

bodies at Durant, using Kyle Kuz-

ma, Daniel Gafford, Kentavious

Caldwell-Pope and Deni Avdija at

different points. None gave Du-

rant much trouble.

The 6-foot-10 swingman

been a little better. I could’ve got

to the line, put us in the bonus and

created some opportunities for

other teammates, too.”

Beal, one of a handful of unvac-

cinated players in the league, is

permitted to play in New York,

San Francisco and Toronto de-

spite local vaccine mandates be-

cause of municipal exemptions

that allow unvaccinated visiting

NBA players to participate in

games. The Nets have prohibited

guard Kyrie Irving from playing

for as long as he declines to re-

ceive a vaccine, a decision that a

group opposed to vaccine man-

dates protested in front of Bar-

clays Center on Sunday ahead of

Brooklyn’s home opener.

Brooklyn’s hot start

Washington’s defense was fo-

cused on making life as difficult as

possible for Durant, a charge the

Wizards hardly met. Durant made

3 of 5 attempts from the field in

the first quarter for eight points,

one-on-one [isolation] ball. Still

got decent looks out of it at times,

but they didn’t fall. So it just kind

of compounds itself and takes on a

snowball effect. We kind of just

lose a little bit of our identity on

that end of the floor.”

Bradley Beal chalked up the

poor offense to his team’s ap-

proach. After the 2-0 start, the

franchise cornerstone said the

Wizards rolled into Brooklyn be-

lieving they could “flip a switch”

on offense and turn things on.

That didn’t happen.

Here’s what to know about

Monday’s loss:

Beal returns

Beal sat out the Wizards’ home

opener Friday with a right hip

contusion, an absence his team-

mates made up for by shooting

52.1 percent from the field and

hitting 19 three-pointers in an

overtime win over the Pacers. The

guard was back in action Monday

but struggled to get going early

before finding a b it of a groove in

the second half and helping Wash-

ington cut a 25-point second-

quarter gap to nine in the third.

Brooklyn responded with a

dunk from Bruce Brown and a

three-pointer from Harden, and

the Nets were comfortably on

their way to a win again.

Beal led the Wizards with 19

points on 8-for-22 shooting in 32

minutes. His long-range jumper

was off throughout despite his

efforts to shoot himself out of a

mini-funk. He made 3 of 13 tries

from long range — that’s just one

off his season high for attempts

last season. And he didn’t have

any luck maneuvering through

the lane, either, given Washing-

ton’s poor spacing and ball move-

ment.

Beal didn’t get to the free throw

line at all, which has happened

only three times since the 2018-19

season.

“I was actually happy with the

threes I took. I looked at the box

score and didn’t realize I took

damn near 15. I was like, ‘Oh.. .’

Might have been settling,” Beal

said. “But I liked the looks. I was

definitely confident in them, they

definitely felt good, and you guys

know me — I’ll bounce back. I

definitely have to be better for my

team in all aspects, and I think me

attacking the basket would’ve

WIZARDS FROM D1

Durant, Nets hand Wizards their first loss of season

Nets 104, Wizards 90

Washington ........................ 2022222 6— 90

Brooklyn ............................. 3821232 2— 104

WASHINGTON MIN FG FT O-TAPFPTS

Caldwell-Pope 24:40 5-11 0-0 0-3 0111

Kuzma 26:56 3-11 0-0 2-1322 6

Gafford 22:42 4-8 5-5 4-5 0313

Beal 31:45 8-22 0-0 0-3 4119

Dinwiddie 25:40 3-13 2-2 0-5 6110

Harrell 21:19 4-7 2-5 1-7 1110

Bertans 20:48 0-2 0-0 1-302 0

Avdija 19:10 0-6 2-2 1-722 2

Holiday 18:19 3-7 3-4 0-4 0211

Neto 16:10 1-5 0-0 0-112 2

Kispert 4:30 1-1 0-0 1-100 2

Todd 4:30 1-2 1-2 0-100 4

Ayayi 3:30 0-0 0-0 0-000 0

TOTALS 240 33-95 15-20 10-53 16 17 90

Percentages: FG .347, FT .750. 3-Point Goals: 9-39, .231

(Beal 3-13, Holiday 2-2, Dinwiddie 2-6, Todd 1-2,

Caldwell-Pope 1-4, Neto 0-1, Bertans 0-2, Avdija 0-4,

Kuzma 0-5). Team Rebounds: 12. Team Turnovers: None.

Blocked Shots: 5 (Avdija, Dinwiddie, Gafford, Harrell,

Kispert). Turnovers: 12 (Beal 5, Holiday 2, Kuzma 2,

Bertans, Gafford, Harrell). Steals: 5 (Caldwell-Pope,

Harrell, Holiday, Neto, Todd). Technical Fouls: Wizards,

5:06 first.

BROOKLYN MIN FG FT O-TAPFPTS

Brown 30:18 6-10 2-2 1-3 0214

Durant 34:44 9-17 6-9 0-8 4125

Griffin 18:58 1-7 0-0 2-902 2

Harden 30:24 5-17 3-3 1-6 9114

Harris 30:21 3-12 2-2 1-8 2211

Mills 22:59 8-14 0-0 0-2 3321

Bembry 18:01 3-4 1-1 1-312 7

Claxton 16:16 3-4 0-0 1-811 6

Carter 13:50 0-2 0-0 0-312 0

Millsap 9:12 0-1 0-0 0-323 0

Johnson 6:48 1-1 0-0 0-000 2

Sharpe 4:03 1-1 0-0 0-000 2

Thomas 4:03 0-3 0-0 0-100 0

TOTALS 240 40-93 14-17 7-54 23 19 104

Percentages: FG .430, FT .824. 3-Point Goals: 10-35, .286

(Mills 5-9, Harris 3-11, Durant 1-2, Harden 1-8, Griffin

0-1, Millsap 0-1, Thomas 0-1, Brown 0-2). Team Re-

bounds: 5. Team Turnovers: None. Blocked Shots: 4

(Claxton 2, Bembry, Harden). Turnovers: 9 (Harden 2,

Mills 2, Bembry, Brown, Durant, Harris, Millsap). Steals:

6 (Bembry 2, Durant 2, Harden, Mills). Technical Fouls:

None. A : 14,487 (17,732).

FRANK FRANKLIN II/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Nets’ Kevin Durant protects the ball from the Wizards’

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Durant led all scorers with 2 5 points.

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