Star guard Bradley Beal is expected to be back in the Wizards‘ lineup when the team visits the Knicks in New York on Wednesday night, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Beal has appeared in just six games since December 4 due to recurring hamstring issues. He sustained a low-grade right hamstring strain that cost him six games last month, returned for five contests, then injured his left hamstring. He attempted to come back from that injury following a three-game absence, but aggravated it in his first game back and has since missed five more contests.
The Wizards had an 11-12 record entering the December 4 game in which Beal initially injured his hamstring, but have slumped since then with their leading scorer in and out of the lineup. Washington has lost 14 of its last 21 games, including 10 of the 14 the team played without Beal.
After signing a five-year, maximum-salary contract with the Wizards in the offseason, Beal is averaging 22.9 points per game, his lowest mark since 2017-18. However, that’s due more to sharing the scoring load with Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma than to any dip in the 29-year-old’s scoring ability. Beal’s 16.4 shot attempts per game are his fewest since ’15-16, and he’s making a career-best 52.5% of his shots from the floor.
The 18-26 Wizards currently sit two games back of the No. 10 Bulls for the East’s final play-in spot.
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