Bradley Beal torches 76ers for 60, but Wizards’ rally falls short

Beal led his team with 60 points, tying Arenas’s tally from Dec. 17, 2006. Still, he could not will his team to a win.

The Wizards lost, 141-136, falling just short of a 21-point comeback mounted midway through the third quarter. Beal shot 20 for 35 from the field, 7 for 10 from three-point range and 13 for 15 from the free throw line, notching his fourth career 50-point game. But like so many superlative individual performances he has had in the past two seasons, Wednesday won’t count as a highlight in Beal’s mind.

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Beal had 57 points through three quarters but shot 1 for 6 in the final 12 minutes. He went to the line with 4.4 seconds remaining, made his first attempt and missed the second — which would have given him the franchise record outright.

“I’m pissed off. I’m mad,” Beal said. “I don’t count any of my career highs that have been losses, so I don’t give a damn. Throw ’em out with the water with the other two or three I had. I just want to win, you know? Sometimes that forces me to score 50, 60, whatever the case may be, but I just want to win, whatever that looks like. Came up short tonight, but we’ve just got to keep at it. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us.”

Starting guard Russell Westbrook left the game with 26 seconds remaining with what he said was a dislocated finger, apparently on his right hand. Westbrook did not know if he will miss any time.

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In many ways, the late-game comeback was evidence of growth for a team that struggled in the fourth quarter repeatedly through its first five games. Forward Davis Bertans scored 17 points, and center Thomas Bryant added 11 points and six rebounds.

But for the better part of three quarters, Wednesday’s game looked like a reminder of how much progress Washington (2-6) had yet to make despite trading for Westbrook and retooling the roster in the offseason. Defense, as ever, was the issue.

“It’s those same mistakes that we have to eliminate,” Beal said. “We showed our hand, so to speak . . . showing that we’re able to defend, we’re able to do these things the correct way on a consistent basis. We built off two really good wins at Minnesota and Brooklyn. We had to come out tonight with that same type of intensity. We didn’t have it. We didn’t have that same focus. That’s been our lapse. That’s been our Achilles’ heel.”

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Philadelphia (7-1) built its sizable first-half lead into a 98-77 margin midway through the third quarter, looking as though it were scrimmaging a practice squad for much of the game. The Sixers picked their spots with ease and had every starter in double figures, plus Shake Milton (19 points) off the bench.

The Wizards, meanwhile, had Beal shouldering the offensive load. And not much else. Had Westbrook and rookie wing Deni Avdija not been on the floor for much of the night, it might have been easy to confuse these Wizards with last year’s squad. The familiar elements were all present, but ghastly defense stood out most.

“We tried everything on [76ers center Joel Embiid]. He’s a great player,” Wizards Coach Scott Brooks said. “He gets some of these calls that are tough to manage. He’s a great player, strong, very skilled — he doesn’t get enough credit for how skilled he is — for his size, his athleticism. . . . He’s quick on his feet. He’s a handful. We tried everything.”

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Philadelphia shot 61.7 percent from the field and 62.1 percent from three. Embiid led the barrage with 38 points. Seth Curry added 28, and the pair had the 76ers cruising until Coach Doc Rivers took his starters out midway through the third quarter.

Finally, Washington found its spark. Beal, playing alongside Westbrook, backup guard Ish Smith, Bertans and backup center Robin Lopez, sparked a 10-0 run late in the quarter. The push continued even when Brooks rested Beal — for the first time all game — for a few minutes at the start of the final period.

The Wizards opened the fourth quarter on an 11-1 run, tying the score at 117 with nine minutes remaining. A layup from Bryant tied the score again at 131 with four minutes left. Then Embiid got hot, scoring eight straight points to all but put the game out of reach, leaving both Beal and the Wizards short of their goals.

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“Special player. Special, every year now,” Brooks said of Beal. “An all-star every year in my mind, an all-NBA player. Hopefully the rest of the league will understand that. He gets better every year; leadership is definitely high level. Knowing him, he’s pissed off. He got 60 points, and we lost. We had a chance to come back and win this game. He’s about winning. He can score a lot of points on any team on any given night, but he wants to lead us in victories.”