NBA Game Preview - Brooklyn at Washington

Sat Feb 1, 2020 8:00 PM EST

Brooklyn guard Kyrie Irving, who scored 54 points in the Nets' win over the Chicago Bulls on Friday night, will look for an encore in a Saturday road game against the Washington Wizards.

Irving scored 27 points in each half of the Nets' 133-118 victory against the Bulls. He made all of his 10 first-half shots and finished the night 19-for-23 from the field.

Seven of his baskets were 3-pointers, matching his season high, and Chicago just could not find a way to slow or stop him.

Irving said he was paying tribute to Kobe Bryant, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash.

"I hit a few shots, so I had to keep going and Kobe mentality, and Mamba mentality, keep going," Irving said. "It's still hard, everyone's still grieving, but I think coming out here, knowing this is a place where we connected on a deep scale, it makes a lot of sense (playing)."

The Nets won for the third time in four games.

"We've just got to keep building consistency -- that's the difference between a good and a great team -- so we've just gotta keep building, keep building," Irving said. "I think the guys in the locker room are doing a great job of listening and really just being aggressive on the defensive end, and that's leading to our offensive capabilities."

Spencer Dinwiddie came off the bench and gave Brooklyn 20 points. The Nets scored 73 in the first half to take command, their season-best total for the opening half of a game.

Overall, Brooklyn shot a season-high 62.5 percent from the field, making 50 of 80 shots, to run away from the Bulls.

The Nets also could do some damage in Washington because even though the Wizards have been playing better, they are one of the NBA's worst defensive teams. The Wizards allow an average of 121 points per game, the worst figure in the NBA by a large margin.

On the plus side for Washington, Bradley Beal comes into the Saturday game on a roll. He has scored 30-plus points during each of the past five contests and is averaging 39 points in that span.

Beal is coming off of a strong performance Thursday when Washington topped the Charlotte Hornets 121-107. He finished with 34 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

The All-Star rosters came out Thursday, and Beal was surprisingly left off, and that might have given him a bit of motivation in the game. Regardless, Charlotte could not slow him down.

"He's hard to stop," Washington coach Scott Brooks said, according to the team's website. "He's been attacking the last five or six games now. He had a great game. ... Brad made a lot of winning plays on both ends."

The Wizards will send rookie forward Rui Hachimura and second-year forward/center Moritz Wagner to the 2020 Rising Stars Challenge at the NBA All-Star Weekend on Feb. 14 in Chicago.

Both will be playing for Team World in that game.

Hachimura, a Japan native, has missed 22 games due to a groin injury but is averaging 13.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists. He ranks third on Washington in scoring, and he finally might be ready to play Saturday for the first time since Dec. 16, Brooks said Friday.

Wagner, a Germany native, is scoring 11.6 rebounds and pulling down six rebounds per game. He hasn't played since Dec. 10 due to a sprained left ankle.

--Field Level Media