Bilal Coulibaly and Will Riley led the way with over 20 points each, but it wasn't enough as the Washington Wizards fell, 131-126. against the Golden State Warriors on Friday night
The Washington Wizards proved to be competitive for nearly all 48 minutes on Saturday night, but it wasn't enough after eventually falling, 131-125, in a road loss against the Golden State Warriors.
Will Riley led the way with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three, in 29 minutes. Bilal Coulibaly was the second Wizard to finish with 20 or more after scoring 21 points on 50% shooting from the field and six rebounds in just 19 minutes. Former Wizard Kristaps Porzingis finished with a game-high 28 points behind five made threes while Gui Santos added 27 points and Brandin Podziemski posted a double-double with 22 points and ten rebounds.
But Washington would find itself in a quick hole after the Warriors opened on a 16-4 lead minutes into the game before Bub Carrington picked up the scoring slack to finish with ten points in the first quarter with the Wizards down 13.
The Wizards trimmed the deficit back to single digits after Alex Sarr drilled a three, making it a 54-46 game, but the Warriors would swarm Washington in response and capitalize on a pair of miscues before a corner three in transition eventually pushed the deficit back to 15 points with just over two minutes left in the first half.
Bilal Coulibaly, the team's leading scorer at halftime, would get the Wizards back to a single digit deficit after twos threes in the opening minutes cut it to a six point deficit. Tre Johnson would answer with a three of his own, forcing the Warriors to call a timeout with the game the closest it had been since the opening seconds of the game.
Bub Carrington would drill a three minutes later to eventually tie the game at 76, but Washington would go cold after Golden State responded with a 5-0 run. Still, the Wizards wouldn't go away after keeping it a one score game through the bulk of the third quarter before Leaky Black's reverse layup with under 30 seconds left sent the two teams into the fourth quarter tied at 92.
Washington appeared poised to pull off the road win after going up five following an Anthony Gill layup midway through the fourth, but Golden State countered with a quick 9-0 run to take back a lead they never gave back.
The Wizards will return to action on Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers with tipoff set for.6 PM.