Nearly a third of the way through the season and the Washington Wizards had just six wins, but have since doubled their win total over the last seven games. In a back and forth game that featured 14 ties and seven lead changes, the Wizards held on for a 112-110 win over the Denver Nuggets to surprisingly sweep the season series. In 20 minutes off the bench, Deni Avdija had just two points and two rebounds.

The All-Stars in the game showed out per usual. Bradley Beal had 33 points on 10-for-19 shooting and made all 11 of his free throws. Jamal Murray had 34 points and Nikola Jokic had 24 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. Murray had a chance to take the lead at the end of the game with a three where he was 6-for-11 from beyond the arc, but passed up the opportunity. Neither Facundo Campazzo nor Michael Porter Jr. cut to the basket in the botched 4-on-1 transition opportunity.

Wizards survive what could have been a frantic disaster and finish the West Coast trip 3-1 pic.twitter.com/UNomQWpWh9

— Hoop District (@Hoop_District) February 26, 2021

“My initial thought was they’re about to get a damn layup and we’re going into overtime. That was honestly my initial thought,” Bradley Beal remembered as the lone man back. “I was just running towards Murray and I just knew he was going to throw a lob to [Michael] Porter Jr. for an easy lay or a dunk. Then I seen him kind of slow down at the three-point line and I’m like, ‘oh s—, he’s trying to send us home.’ So I’m like let me at least try to contest, force him to take the layup and sure enough, they kind of played into our hands in our favor. I’m happy as hell, I can tell you that.”

With Davis Bertans sitting out with right knee soreness that Scott Brooks described as day-to-day, Avdija saw his minutes go up a bit. That did not necessarily lead to more production on either end of the floor. With four players (Beal, Westbrook, Hachimura, and Neto) with double-digit shot attempts and the rookie never looking to force his own shot, Avdija’s lone bucket came on a good cut from the corner where Russell Westbrook found him for an easy layup. Defensively, the rookie had some lapses with poor closeouts on three-point attempts and bad switches. All part of the learning experience that he will continue to improve from.

“Just being aware. I thought he made some mistakes on switches, just things a lot of young players have to go through. This is no different than any player,” Brooks assessed. “He just has to keep playing hard, he’s going to learn how to read the situations quicker. Tonight, he overhelped when [Robin Lopez] had the ball under control gave up right slot 3 to Porter and then some of our switches with Murray. Those are hard plays.”

Russ dime to Deni.#WizNuggets | @russwest44 pic.twitter.com/dEUGPJvhzd

— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) February 26, 2021

The Wizards will return to the East Coast where they will play three of their final four first-half games at home starting with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. Minnesota fired head coach Ryan Saunders and unprecedently hired Chris Finch off the Toronto Raptors bench this past week.