With their 104-91 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night, the Washington Wizards maintained hold of sixth place in the Eastern Conference and achieved the franchise's first winning record since the 2007-08 season.
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THE LEAD: Bradley Beal led a balanced scoring attack with 26 points and the Washington Wizards' defense led a third quarter surge in their 104-91 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Six players for Washington scored in double figures for the Wizards (42-38) including John Wall, who had 15 points and eight assists. Marcin Gortat had 13 points and 13 rebounds while Trevor Ariza broke out of a shooting slump to also score 13 points.
Khris Middleton and Ramon Sessions each scored 20 points for the Bucks (15-65), who committed 14 of their 20 turnovers in the second half. Milwaukee remains two games behind the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA standings, meaning another loss will ensure the league's worst record.
The Wizards remain one game ahead of the Charlotte Bobcats for sixth in the East. They also moved within 1.5 games of the fifth place Brooklyn Nets.
Milwaukee had only eight available players.
QUOTABLE: "In the first half we allowed them to come back in. The last two minutes our defense slipped. In the third quarter, we did a great job defending them from the start. We were able to knock down some shots and once we got a great cushion, a great lead, it was a great job by us sustaining that."
-- Beal on the Wizards' effort
THE STAT: Washington made 8-of-22 3-point attempts. That might not sound special, but it's rather nice compared to the 6-for-50 they shot from beyond the arc over the previous three games.
TURNING POINT: The Wizards led 71-69 with 4:54 left in the third quarter when they pulled away with a 12-1 run. Early in the fourth quarter, Al Harrington's 3-pointer gave Washington its largest lead at 97-76 with 9:01 remaining.
QUOTABLE II: "We've beaten anybody that we're going to have to face this year. I'm not worried about that. We're in the sixth spot right now. If we just take care of ourselves and worry about ourselves then we're going to stay in the sixth spot."
-- Wizards coach Randy Wittman on the uncertainty of the team's first round opponent
HOT: The Wizards went 16-for-19 at the free throw line.
NOT: The Bucks, victors against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, have not won consecutive games all season.
GOOD MOVE: Ariza missed all 11 of his 3-point attempts over Washington's previous three games. He sank his first shot from beyond the arc against Milwaukee midway through the first quarter and finished 2-for-4 overall.
BAD MOVE: More like an interesting move. With Brandon Knight (sore hip) a last second scratch after taking a fall in Friday's win, Bucks coach Larry Drew often used rookie swingman Giannis Antetokounmpo at point. The 19-year-old had eight points, two assists and four turnovers in 43 minutes.
NOTABLE: The Wizards rested Nene after the power forward's left knee felt stiff earlier in the day. Nene recently returned after missing 21 games with a knee ligament injury. ... Al Harrington had 12 points and Trevor Booker scored 11 for the Wizards. ... Jeff Adrien finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Bucks.
QUOTABLE III: "I thought he did OK. He was the only ball handler we had after Ramon so we just had to try to improvise once we got word that Brandon was not gonna be able to play. Tried to play him, let him handle the ball some, just try to spare Ramon as much as we could." - Bucks coach Larry Drew on Antetokounmp's time at point guard
