WASHINGTON — It took 57 games for the Washington Wizards to hold a team under 100 points this season.
Of course, Marcus Smart wasn’t around for most of those.
Smart and the Wizards held Brooklyn to 12 points in the fourth quarter of over the Nets on Monday night. Washington was the only team in the NBA that hadn’t kept an opponent in double digits this season, but the Wizards finally did it in Smart’s second game with them.
“It took everybody,” Smart said. “That Brooklyn team as we all know, they don’t back down from nobody. They’re going to come out and test you on both ends.”
The 2022-23 Utah Jazz went the whole season without holding an opponent under 100, according to Sportradar. They were the first team that failed to hold a team under 100 since the 1990-91 Denver Nuggets. Denver also needed until game No. 74 to do it in 1986-87.
The Wizards acquired Smart from Memphis in that moved him from one of the top teams in the Western Conference standings to the league-worst Wizards. He was the 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year with Boston, but he hasn’t played much since being dealt to the Grizzlies in June 2023.
Smart has been dealing with an injury to his right index finger recently, but he made his debut for the Wizards last week and played again Monday. He scored 10 points in 21:38 against Brooklyn.
“There is some people that kind of probably slept — I haven’t played in a couple years consistently, and they probably forgot about me — which is cool. I’m used to it,” Smart said. “I still do what I do.”
Brooklyn took a 97-96 lead on Trendon Watford’s layup with 4:45 remaining. Then the Nets didn’t score again until a couple of free throws with 13 seconds left.
Washington won despite 23 turnovers. Brooklyn committed 18 of its own.
“We weathered the storm,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe said. “We didn’t play a perfect game. We scored 40 points in the second half. We struggled to score at times. We’re still learning chemistry with the new guys. But that didn’t stop us from staying competitive and staying with the game. We really won the game tonight with our defense.”
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