WASHINGTON -- After exiting in the first round for the first time together, John Wall praised Bradley Beal for having an "MVP-type season" while he was out during the regular season and looked ahead to how the Washington Wizards duo will "just keep getting better" during the summer for next season.
With Otto Porter Jr. out after having a procedure on his injured left leg, Wall and Beal poured in a combined 55 points, but the eighth-seeded Wizards fell to the top-seeded Toronto Raptors 102-92 in Game 6 on Friday night. Toronto clinched the first-round series 4-2 to advance.
In their four postseason appearances together, Wall and Beal failed to make it to the second round this year for the first time. Their long-time goal has been to break through the second-round barrier and into the Eastern Conference finals.
"For me [this] was upsetting [mostly] because I missed 40-something games," said Wall, who missed a total of 41 games this season -- 28 straight after he had surgery on his left knee in January. "And for these guys to even compete the way they did and for Brad to have an MVP-type season for our team and making more strides is big-time for us. He held it down and other guys competed and made it a fun season and had an opportunity to make the playoffs. Other than that point, it was disappointing for me to miss so many games."
Wall made it clear that Beal deserves recognition for his first All-Star season, something that Washington head coach Scott Brooks cited as growth in the Wall-Beal relationship.
"Just watching John and Brad's growth, not only with themselves but with their teammates, has improved," Brooks said. "John giving Brad a lot of credit, there's been talk about before I got here that that would not have been the case. But from the two years I have been here, they have been connected at the hip. They know that they have to keep getting better and keep becoming better leaders."
Beal, who scored 32 points and hit six 3-pointers in Game 6, averaged 22.6 points and career highs of 4.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds while playing in all 82 games for the first time in his six-year career. He logged a career-high 36.3 minutes per game this season, trying to keep the Wizards afloat while Wall was out from the end of January to the end of March.
Despite the fact that the Wizards had a disappointing season, winning just 43 games and making the playoffs as an eighth-seed after losing to Boston in the semifinals in seven games last postseason, Wall says he and Beal will focus on improving while management adds around the Wizards' All-Star backcourt.
"I think we have an opportunity this summer to try to make our team better," said Wall, who had 23 points and eight assists in Game 6. "Being in the situation before where we fall short in certain situations, most importantly, me and Brad just keep getting better and improving our game and improving our conditioning and all the types of things that we can prepare ourselves for a long season. And then it is up to our front office to add the pieces that they think we need to make our team better, more complete."
Beal felt the sting of not making it to the second round for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
"We lost games in a variety of ways -- turnovers, rebounds, 50-50 balls, defensive stops, scoring late in games," Beal said. "It's a lot. You can't just pinpoint it on one thing. It was more than one thing.
"We haven't been knocked out of the first round [before] -- I am a little bothered by that. We are a better team than that. We have high expectations coming into the year and we fell short of them."