Bradley Beal, Wizards on longest win streak since Michael Jordan came out of retirement for second time

The last time the Washington Wizards won eight in a row, Michael Jordan had just left the front office and come out of retirement for the second time.

Bradley Beal and the Wizards used a big fourth-quarter push Sunday to rally past the Cleveland Cavaliers 119-110 for their eighth straight win. It's the Wizards' longest win streak since they won nine in a row in Dec. 2001 during Jordan's first season with the team.

"It's a blessing, but we don't pat ourselves on the back or anything like that because we still got our work cut out," said Beal, who scored a game-high 33 points. "Tonight was probably one of our not so good nights. Granted, we duked it out and won, but we had a lot of mental lapses and defensive lapses that we shouldn't have had tonight."

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Daniel Gafford, Bradley Beal, and Coach Brooks after tonight’s #WizCavs.

Cleveland led by eight early in the fourth quarter before Washington rallied and put the game away with a 14-5 closing run. Russell Westbrook had a quiet night by his standards with 14 points and 11 assists, but the bench came through with 51 points. Robin Lopez had 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting, and Daniel Gafford had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting with six rebounds, four steals and four blocks.

"Just coming in and having as much energy as I possibly can, keeping guys up and whatnot," Gafford said. "We're just one big happy family at this point, trying to stay together, trying to stay locked in as a team to where we can withstand late-game situations like we just did tonight."

Washington has surged to 10th place in the Eastern Conference and the final spot in the new play-in format. Beal wants the Wizards thinking about more. They're two games behind the Indiana Pacers for ninth and three back of Jordan's Charlotte Hornets for eighth. Washington has 12 games left.

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