Otto Porter Jr. scored a season-high 29 points, John Wall had 22 points and eight assists, and the Washington Wizards beat the New Orleans Pelicans 124-114 on Saturday night.
Austin Rivers had 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter for the Wizards, who shot a season-high 56.7 percent (51 of 90) from the floor in a game between the league’s second- and third-worst defenses entering Saturday.
Bradley Beal also finished with 18, one of six Wizards to score in double figures on a night the Pelicans were without injured All-Star forward Anthony Davis.
Julius Randle tied a season high with 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. He started in place of Davis, who was ruled out during pregame warmups after straining his right hip in Friday’s loss at the New York Knicks.
Nikola Mirotic added 22 points and E’Twaun Moore scored 19 as the Pelicans finished a three-game road trip winless, sinking to 2-9 on the road overall and 0-4 without Davis this season.
In a game with 14 lead changes, New Orleans held the advantage early in the fourth quarter, but eventually the Wizards used a 15-5 run to pull away
Porter tipped in a miss and then slammed in Wall’s alley-oop feed to put Washington up 113-104 with 5:15 left, the largest lead in the game to that point.
Rivers added a pair of runners to close the stretch, giving Washington a 119-107 lead with 2:06 to play.
DAVIS DOWN
Davis returned in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s loss to the Knicks after hurting his hip in the third, but was held out of the back end of the Pelicans’ fourth back-to-back game set this season. Davis also missed a stretch of three out of four games earlier this season with an elbow sprain.
TIP-INS
Pelicans: Used their eighth different starting lineup of the season because of Davis’ absence. . Have allowed an average of 126 points in their four games without Davis this season.
Wizards: Porter scored 16 points over the first 7:21 of the game, hitting all three of his 3-point attempts and 6-of-7 shots overall. . C Dwight Howard (sore glute) missed a third consecutive game. He has played in only nine of Washington’s 19 games this season.
UP NEXT
Pelicans: Host Boston on Monday night.
Wizards: Host Houston on Monday.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.