Ranking the 15 best performances in the NBA this season
12. Bradley Beal does his best against Milwaukee (02/24/20)
Despite posting career-high marks in several categories with the league’s second-highest scoring average, the 2019-20 season hasn’t been kind to Bradley Beal.
His Washington Wizards are just 24-40 on the season despite his best efforts to single-handedly drag them to wins with a third-place ranking in individual 30, 40 and 50-point games.
That poor record that has Washington on the outside of a laughable bottom-half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture is why Beal’s 29.1 scoring average became the highest to never qualify for the All-Star Game — it’s now at 30.5.
There’s a certain sadness to Beal’s necessary gunslinger act, which was no more apparent than when the Milwaukee Bucks came to the Capital One Arena back in February.
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1232289141733216259
While Milwaukee had three players score north of 20 points, the Wizards had only Beal, who dropped a career-high 55 points on 17-of-33 shooting from the field and 8-of-13 from downtown.
Related Story. 15 stars you forgot played for the Golden State Warriors. light
Here was a Bucks team with the league’s top record and stingiest defense and Beal was ripping them to shreds in pursuit of a victory, ultimately falling short by three in overtime.
It was another wasted performance by Beal, the second in consecutive 50-point outings with no wins to show for it.
Such has been the narrative for Beal all season. That he continues to score in bunches despite the nightly defenses geared solely on him speaks to a caliber of talent opposing teams should hope remains sullied in the Nation’s Capitol.