Washington Wizards beat Revamped Cavs

The revamped Cleveland Cavaliers lost 110 – 103 at home against the Washington Wizards on Thursday night.

The Wizards continued their surprising good form in the absence of their star guard, John Wall. Tomas Satoransky, who has been starting in Wall’s spot, added 17 points, eight assists and didn’t have a turnover in 31 minutes.

Bradley Beal scored 18 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. added 17 as Washington weathered a late LeBron storm to win. Washington is 8 – 2 since John Wall’s knee injury.

LeBron James, who finished with 32 points, scored 14 straight in the 4th quarter. However, it wasn’t enough. Beal hit a driving layup. James missed a free throw and committed a lane violation and the Wizards held on.

Cleveland gave home debuts to Larry Nance Jr., George Hill, Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson. The new-look team is going to have to perform better if it wants to reach the NBA finals.

“We hung together,” said Wizards coach Scott Brooks. “We showed great resolve. That’s what we talked about. Resiliency is what successful teams do in this league. We’ve been showing that. We’ve just got to keep doing it.”

All-Star MVP LeBron James was pleased with the performance in spite of the loss.

“I think we played well tonight, even though we lost. I hate losing, obviously, but I think the way we played, the way we shared the ball. Defensively, we were flying around as well and those guys, they just played better than us tonight. I like the start, I like the direction we’re headed.”

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Bradley Beal was looking towards the rest of the season post-match.

“It was a great team effort. We know the games before the break and the game after the break are always the toughest ones to get, especially when you’re playing a team like this. It was definitely a challenge for us.The rest of the year is going to be a challenge for us, but we did a great job starting out.”