Bradley Beal day-to-day following ankle sprain

Bradley Beal sprained his right ankle Wednesday night and is day-to-day.

The Washington Wizards shooting guard folded his ankle under his leg during a first-quarter fastbreak when he tried “a little euro move” and crumpled to the floor. Beal eventually went to the bench, then to the locker room. He returned to the game and played until halftime.

Beal received an X-ray exam in the locker room at halftime which showed no further injury. He was unsure if he will have more tests Thursday, saying “maybe” an MRI exam will take place.

“I don’t know if my foot slipped… it just turned really bad,” Beal said. “It’s a little sore right now. I’m day-to-day, so I’ll see how I feel [Thursday]. I’m not one to stay out too long with ankle injuries.”

Beal had an efficient night under way before the injury derailed him. He was 5-for-9 from the floor for 12 points in 18 first-half minutes. The Wizards were able to spread his minutes around in the second half and hold on for a 111-105 win against the Indiana Pacers, their seventh consecutive home victory.

Beal watched from the locker room, where he had decided to “shut it down” after the ankle became stiff on him during the halftime assessment. He said in the past, he would not have stayed in the back.

“I’d have been hard-headed for sure,” Beal said. “I’d have definitely came back out and continue to play and not be 100 percent. That’s the last thing I want to do. I don’t want to half-ass my teammates.”

The Wizards play just one game in the next four days, giving Beal a nice window to recuperate. They host the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night before two days off precede a two-game road trip.

Wall doing Wall things. Without Beal, John Wall was the catalyst for the Wizards — even more so than usual. Wall finished with 36 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists (plus five turnovers) in 38:45 on the floor. Notable in the underbelly of that stat line was Wall going 12-for-13 from the free throw line, including a 6-for-6 run in the final 1:14 of the game.

“John Wall made a lot of those long twos, and he was able to come in and control the game,” Pacers forward Thaddeus Young said. “He did a very good job. He did what John Wall does.”

Caveat warning: This was the 31st game of the season. But, to this point, Wall is working through his best offensive season. He’s averaging 23.7 points per game and is shooting 46.3 percent from the field. Coming into Wednesday, his effective field-goal percentage was 49.0, up from a career average of 45.8. He said his offseason knee surgeries gave him ample time to work on his shot form since he could not run. Wall was 5-for-8 from 16 feet to the 3-point line on Wednesday night. That also means 42 percent of his shots were from that part of the floor, which is likely more than Washington wants.

Seven and counting. The Wizards have won seven consecutive home games. Washington’s last seven-game home winning streak came from Nov. 29-Dec. 16, 2014, when it won eight consecutive games. Overall, the Wizards have won eight of 11 to yank their record up to 15-16. Friday night, they host the struggling Nets (8-23) who are just a win ahead of Philadelphia for the Eastern Conference’s poorest record. A win there would put Washington at .500 before the new year, pulling it out of what was a 2-8 rut early in the season. The defense has been better. The offense has been excellent. The bench has been solid, which is a significant uptick from the poor play it produced at the beginning of the season. The rest of the Eastern Conference also continues to do Washington favors. After Thursday night’s game, the Wizards are 2.5 games out of fourth place. However, a lot of teams can grab onto how close they are to a better seed since the 12th-place team, Detroit, is just five games behind the third-place team, Boston. But, for Washington, the change in trajectory is notable no matter what else teams in the conference are doing.