Wizards’ Beal, Nets’ Dinwiddie won’t play
Wizards leading scorer Bradley Beal and Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, above, won’t take part in the restart of the NBA season, two significant absences in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Beal is out because of a right rotator cuff injury; Dinwiddie announced that he’s still testing positive for coronavirus and won’t participate.
The Wizards, Magic and Nets are the three teams left in the chase for the final two playoff spots in the East. If the Wizards finish within four games of whichever club finishes eighth, then two games will be played to determine the No. 8 seed.
“He’s worked religiously to get this thing back to where it feels right, and it just hasn’t felt right,” said Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard, who doesn’t believe Beal’s injury will linger long term or require surgery. “To hear him say himself that he’s just not right right now, ‘I’ve got to keep working, I’ve got more work to do,’ made that decision much easier.”
The Wizards will also be without forward Davis Bertans, who decided to opt out of playing as a pending free agent, and injured guard John Wall. With Beal and Bertans out, a Wizards team that has been without Wall all season will have to replace more than 40 points per game if it is to somehow get into that postseason mix.
Beal, 27, averaged 30.5 points a game this season, almost twice as much as Bertans, the Wizards’ No. 2 scorer..
His absence also all-but clinches the NBA scoring title for the Rockets’ James Harden, who would be mathematically assured of staying ahead of Beal by scoring a total of 12 points in the seeding games. If Harden sits out any of the Rockets’ last eight games, that would also be enough to ensure his average — 34.4 points per game — doesn’t fall below Beal.
Dinwiddie averaged 20.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists before the league shut down.