Bradley Beal elevated his play when his team needed it the most and the Washington Wizards continued their strong start to the new season on Thursday night.

Brad scored a season-high 27 points and flirted with a triple-double, dishing out eight assists and grabbing eight rebounds, as the homesteading Wizards defended their floor with a 122-111 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at Capital One Arena.

After the game, No. 3 credited coach Wes Unseld Jr. for putting the team in position to succeed from the jump, and getting the group playing good enough defense to carry them through some rough nights shooting the ball.

“Coach has been working his tail off. He puts us in good positions and he’s very open to dialogue between players,” Brad said. “If something’s not working, he’s very open with us, ‘okay guys what is your recommendation, what do you guys want to do.’ He’s a true players’ coach. You respect everything he does. We’re learning on the fly with him, just like he is. We’re fortunate we’ve been putting together some good games. Our defense has won [those games]. We’ve been playing like crap on offense, but our defense is what has won us these games.”

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The Wizards did have five scorers over 20 on Thursday, led by BB. Montrezl Harrell responded to an elevation to the starting lineup with 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope each tallied 21 points.

The game was won for Washington in the middle quarters. They limited Atlanta to 23 points in the second frame while Brad had his best quarter of the season, knocking down 6-of-11 shots for 13 points. Thanks to his efforts, the Wizards led by nine at the break. They poured it on in the third, pushing their lead as high as 20. Atlanta attempted a comeback in the fourth, but the Wiz defense stood tall to send them to their second straight win, a sweep of a tough back-to-back against two fellow contenders that had them in Boston on Wednesday and home against Atlanta on Thursday.

The win moves Washington to 4-1 on the season, in a four-way tie atop the Eastern Conference. But Brad isn’t looking at anything like that this early in the season.

“We still haven’t done anything, that’s something we continue to preach to ourselves. We understand what reality is, but we still have that mentality that we haven’t done anything yet.”

The Wizards will look to extend their winning streak to three when they host the Boston Celtics at Capital One Arena on Saturday evening. Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. ET.