On a day the basketball world memorialized Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi, Bradley Beal may have had one of the more fitting ways to honor the late Los Angeles Lakers legend.
Beal scored a career-high 55 points against the Milwaukee Bucks at Capital One Arena. His huge game occurred a night after he dropped a previous career-high 53 points against the Chicago Bulls in which he moved into second-place on the Wizards’ all-time scoring list. By doing so, Beal became the first player to score 50 points on back-to-back nights since Bryant did so on March 22-23, 2007.
Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Bernard King also scored 50-plus points on consecutive nights.
Beal also joined Chamberlain and James Harden as the only NBA players to score 53 points or more in back-to-back games.
Against Milwaukee, Beal shot 19-of-33 from the field. He made 8-of-13 three-pointers.
The Bucks, who currently hold the best record in the NBA, had no answers for Beal for much of the 41 minutes he logged in.
Unfortunately for Beal, much like Sunday evening, his efforts did not result in a WIzards’ win. The Bucks went on to edge the Wizards 137-134 in overtime.
Still, it’s an insane clip by Beal. He was the highest-scoring All-Star Game snub in NBA history. And missing out in a trip to Chicago two weekends ago has led to this two-game tear by him.
