Bradley Beal hot streak reminds why Wizards offered supermax

On Tuesday night against the Hawks, Beal took over the game in crunch time with 12 fourth-quarter points to help the Wizards (29-32) to a come-from-behind road victory. Washington trailed by eight points with six minutes remaining before roaring back for the 119-116 win. This was without second-leading scorer Kristaps Porzingis, to boot.

Over his past nine games, Beal is averaging nearly 27 points. He has scored at least 30 points five times during that stretch. In all five of those big contests, he made 50% or more of his shots from the floor.

Washington has seemingly turned the corner as a team since Beal has rediscovered his All-Star form, rolling to a 5-3 record in their past eight games to move into range for the play-in bracket as the Eastern Conference's No. 10 seed. The Wizards now sit just 1.5 games behind the eighth-seeded Hawks.