[jwplayer AFUUcqVf]
Heeding advice from the coaching staff, Rui Hachimura played aggressively on Friday but the effort was not enough as the Washington Wizards fell to the Phoenix Suns in the season restart opener.
Hachimura scored a team-high 21 points and eight rebounds in the 125-112 loss. He finished by shooting 8-of-15 from the field while he made all five of his free-throw attempts. Overall, it was the performance that the Wizards needed but Hachimura couldn’t get enough help to win.
On a couple of occasions, Hachimura assumed the point guard duties and pushed the pace following a rebound. He dropped in a perfect pass to Thomas Bryant on one sequence in the third quarter for the easy dunk and opted to keep it himself later in the period.
八 ➡️ 😤 pic.twitter.com/C1Tig5Pxo8
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) July 31, 2020
Rui Hachimura coast-2-coast pic.twitter.com/Raz3B52l0m
— Hoop District (@Hoop_District) July 31, 2020
With the loss, and following an Orlando Magic win earlier in the day, the Wizards dropped to six games behind the Brooklyn Nets in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The margin of error was already razor-thin to make the playoffs and that got a little tighter for the Wizards following the loss on Friday.
The Wizards play next on Sunday against the Nets.
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