Beal, Westbrook lead Wizards past Jazz, Knicks edge

LOS ANGELES: Bradley Beal scored 43 points and Russell Westbrook produced a 35-point triple-double as the Washington Wizards knocked off the NBA-leading Utah Jazz 131-122 on Thursday.

The Wizards notched their first win of the second half of the season, snapping a five-game skid with a convincing performance against the Western Conference high-flyers.

Washington seized control early, building a 24-point lead in the first half and withstanding a 42-point performance by Jazz star Donovan Mitchell.

Aussie guard Joe Ingles added 34 points and Rudy Gobert added 10 points with 13 rebounds for Utah, but the Jazz couldn't engineer a comeback.

"We knew this was a tough team coming in, number one team in the league right now," said Beal, who said defence was the key to victory a night after the Wizards fell 121-119 to the Sacramento Kings on De'Aaron Fox's late game-winner.

"We didn't have a choice but to guard or we were going to go down by 30," added Beal, who saw his streak of 11 straight 40-point games in which his team had lost finally come to an end.

"It was imperative that we left last night where it was and we came back with a different mindset that we were going to guard, and we did it for 48 minutes."

Westbrook came out with a sense of urgency, scoring 13 points in the first quarter.

Along with 35 points he added 15 rebounds and 13 assists.

Mitchell, limited to one basket on three attempts in the first quarter, gradually heated up.

But he said the Jazz just haven't been maintaining their focus as they did during their 11-game winning streak in January.

"Focus -- not sure we've had it the last few games," he said. "We've just got to step up. We've got to communicate, keep the ball in front of us and without that we're going to have nights like this."