Troy Brown shines in first career start, but Wizards fall to Nuggets

Troy Brown found out secondhand he was starting his first NBA career game.

Wizards coach Scott Brooks broke the news Thursday in his pre-game media availability that the 19-year-old rookie would be starting in place of an injured Trevor Ariza — before getting a chance to tell Brown himself. Brown was in the team’s training room when he came across the news on Twitter.

“Honestly, I felt like it was a lot easier today for me to warm up and then know I was going to be out there,” Brown said.

He took advantage of the opportunity. But it wasn’t enough.

The Wizards dropped their third straight Thursday with a 113-108 loss to the Denver Nuggets. Brown had a career-high 13 points, five rebounds and three assists in 33 minutes, though Washington fell to one of the Western Conference’s top teams.

Washington almost pulled off a fourth-quarter upset behind star Bradley Beal, only for Denver to hold on. Instead, the Wizards fell further back in the playoff race — now six games back with just nine to play.

After the loss, Brooks said he thought Brown was “solid.”

“I thought he played with a little force,” Brooks said. “Those are the things, as you progress in this league, you become more comfortable and the game tells you to do those things more, and he’s able to do them. … It was just a great opportunity for him to get the start and good minutes against a very, very talented, explosive team.”

The Wizards were coming off an overtime loss Wednesday to the Chicago Bulls, which left players frustrated. Beal ripped his teammates afterward — telling reporters “we just didn’t want to win.”

Before Thursday’s game, Brooks said he understood Beal’s anger.

“If your leader is not frustrated after another tough loss, then you’re in a tough position,” Brooks said.

In addition to Brown, Brooks made further changes to is starting lineup. He swapped veteran Jeff Green for center Thomas Bryant — which moved Bobby Portis to the power forward spot.

Until Thursday, Portis and Bryant had logged only five minutes together, so how they would fit together was largely a mystery. Yet with Washington increasingly out of the playoff picture, Brooks said he wanted to experiment with his lineups for the future.

Both players will be restricted free agents at the end of the season, and the Wizards want to find out if the two can play together.

At first, the pairing had success.

Washington got off to a quick start, rushing out to a 16-8 start behind Thomas’ energy and Portis’ shotmaking.

The lead didn’t last. Denver’s second-unit swung the quarter and the Nuggets remained in firm control in the second. They went into halftime with a 61-53 lead.

The Wizards, though, gained ground in the third — playing with an urgency that reflected a team desperate to make the playoffs.

Brown set the tone. With 6:13 left in the quarter, Washington retook the lead off a Brown and-1. The 19-year-old fueled a 21-5 run that saw Washington go up, 85-75.

“I told (Brown) at the beginning of the year: You’re going to see a lot of stuff throughout this year,” said Beal, who had 25 points. “One thing I always told him, it’s easy to just get caught up in the negativity, but the more positive you stay and the more ready you stay, your name will eventually be called.

“Sure enough, it was called and he performed.”

Brown has had to patiently wait this season. He often spent time in the G-League with the Capital City Go-Go and was out of the Wizards’ rotation for the majority of the year.

Still, Brown said he wasn’t surprised by his first start. He figured it was coming after Ariza went down with a strained calf in Wednesday’s game

Despite Brown’s progress, the game changed after another strong push from Denver’s bench. They tied it at the end of the third and went up by 10 in the fourth.

Washington eventually cut it back to two before Denver prevailed late. Beal said that this time, he was happy with the effort.

“I do not do moral victories, but I felt good as weird as that sounds after tonight, because I felt like we competed the whole game,” Beal said. “We gave ourselves a chance at the end to win the game.”