Bradley Beal on hot streak entering Wizards’ home game vs. Celtics

With John Wall day-to-day with a heel injury, the Washington Wizards have been able to lean on Bradley Beal to carry the offense.

Beal was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for Dec. 3-9 after his dominant efforts on the Wizards’ four-game road trip, which concluded Monday night in Indiana.

On the road trip, Beal shot .465 from the floor and dropped totals of 27, 36, 27 and 30 points. In Washington’s two wins in that span, Beal added seven assists and nine assists, respectively.

Beal has now reached 30 points four times this season and has not failed to score in double-digits in any game.

Wall missed two of the Wizards’ four road games. When they played the Atlanta Hawks, Wall was inactive in order to be present for the birth of his first child. After a 1-point performance against Cleveland a few nights later, it was revealed he was dealing with a bone spur in his left heel, and he missed Monday’s game in Indiana.

In Atlanta, Beal led the Wizards with a season-high 36 points, nine assists and six rebounds, and Washington won 131-117.

“I was due for a game like that, I guess,” Beal told the Washington Post after the Hawks game. “That is kind of always our mindset when sometimes we have off nights or we don’t have big nights: We always say we are due for one, and I guess that was just that moment. That is definitely a good game to build off of and keep the momentum going.”

A few nights later, 19 of Beal’s 30 points came in the second half as he did what he could to force a comeback against the Pacers. But Indiana held on to win by eight.

Beal leads the team in scoring (22.9 points per game), but entering Tuesday, that was only good enough for 15th place in the NBA entering Tuesday.

Will Beal continue his hot streak against the Celtics? He might have to if Wall is forced to miss another game. But in 20 career regular-season games against Boston, Beal has averaged only 17.4 points per game.