While hustling after a loose ball to avoid a turnover, Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal collided with Atlanta Hawks guard Jeff Teague in the fourth quarter of Saturday's game. Teague's knee slammed into the shoulder of Beal, causing a considerable amount of pain. Beal stayed in the game, which he now admits he shouldn't have done.
There is good news as the Wizards and Beal avoided a scare with the injury. There isn't any breakage with his shoulder and it's already improving from Saturday. Coach Randy Wittman told reporters that Beal is nursing a shoulder contusion and will be questionable for Tuesday night's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Wittman: Beal suffered a shoulder contusion, no breakage, made good strides b/w yesterday and today. Quest. for the Thunder game. #Wizards
— Dan Roth (@DanRothDC) November 9, 2015
Beal played for about 2.5 more minutes after the injury occurred before being subbed out with just under a minute to go in the 114-99 loss. There was a lot of concern that this would be the latest injury to keep derailing the promising career of the Wizards shooting guard. He missed 26 games his rookie season, but bounced back in his second season by playing 73 games. His third season saw him back on the inactive list quite a bit as he missed 19 more games.
And yet, Beal has always seemed to bounce back in the playoffs as he takes his game to another level. With the Wizards looking to play more of a style that should allow Beal's game to flourish even more, they were hoping he could take that improved playoff production and extrapolate it to covering an entire season. So far, it's worked out pretty well, which is why a serious injury now would have been even more discouraging than normal.
Beal has averaged 22.7 points on 48.6 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from 3-point range. His scoring average is a career-high at the moment and his 58.7 percent true shooting percentage is by far his career best. We'll have to wait and see if he sits out any action with the shoulder injury and how it affects his play when he gets back on the court, but for now the Wizards get to breathe a huge sigh of relief, knowing it doesn't appear to be that bad at all.
