Wizards guard Bradley Beal is under police investigation due to an incident that occurred after a loss in Orlando last Tuesday, per David Purdum of ESPN.
As Beal and the Wizards were headed to the locker room, a man in the stands who had apparently bet on the game told the three-time All-Star, “You made me lose $1,300, you f–k,” per a police report obtained by ESPN. The police report states that Beal turned around and walked toward the stands, then swatted at a friend of the man who made the comment, making contact with his head and knocking his hat off.
According to Purdum, police reviewed video footage of the altercation and determined that Beal made a comment about this being his job and taking it seriously, while the man who made the comment is heard apologizing. There’s a possibility that the Wizards star will face a battery charge, Purdum adds.
“We are aware of the report and in the process of gathering more information,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said when asked about the incident.
Here are more odds and ends from around the Southeast Division:
- Heat point guard Kyle Lowry has yet to receive medical clearance to play in both games of back-to-back sets, he said this morning (Twitter link via Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald). Lowry’s expectation is that he’ll play his old team in Toronto on Tuesday and then miss Wednesday’s game in New York.
- Although the Hawks still hold a top-eight seed in the East, they don’t look like a threat to make any noise in the playoffs even if they get in, says Jeff Schultz of The Athletic. In Schultz’s view, the rest of Atlanta’s season is more about determining which players are keepers beyond this season than it is about seeing how far the team can get in the postseason.
- Hornets guard James Bouknight hasn’t seen regular minutes for most of his first two NBA seasons, but he re-entered the rotation on Sunday and is expected to play more frequently in the season’s final two weeks, writes Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer. “I just think it’s an opportunity for him,” head coach Steve Clifford said. “He can now use this as a springboard into his summer. One of things that hurt his year this year was he didn’t have a summer last year. He was injured, so he wasn’t able to do anything. Regardless of how old guys are, most of their year is set up in the summer. Rarely do guys have bad summers and come back and have great years.”
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