Just over eight months to the day of his last appearance in a Washington Wizards game, Bradley Beal was back on the court on Friday as the Wiz opened a two-game preseason set with the Golden State Warriors in Tokyo, getting his feet wet for a huge season to come in The District.

Brad played 17-and-a-half minutes and scored nine points on 4-of-8 from the field while adding three assists, two rebounds and a pair of steals as Washington dropped the hard fought exhibition with the defending-champion Warriors, 96-87. After the game, Brad reflected on the road back and how it felt to just play NBA basketball again.

“I felt awesome,” he said. “Just being back on the floor, I was super excited for today. I haven’t played since late January. So it was really cool to be able to get back out there with the team, get up and down and just play. This is the best job in the world, the most fun game. I feel really good.”

The Wizards featured a starting lineup of Brad, Kyle Kuzma, Japanese native Rui Hachimura and two players who weren’t with the team the last time No. 3 suited up, big man Kristaps Porzingis and point guard Monte Morris.

And it didn’t take long for Brad to get acquainted with his new point man, as Morris fed him for a pull-up jumper for the first points of the game just 11 seconds in.

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No. 3 got his next points a few minutes later off a feed from Porzingis, who found Brad for a driving layup that put Washington in front 8-4 early. A few plays later, Brad showed off his defensive chops, forcing a turnover, grabbing the loose ball and feeding a streaking Kuzma for a jam.

No. 3 added a second steal before being subbed out of the game with 2:40 left in the first. When he returned a few minutes into the second, he kicked off a comeback for Washington. His tip-in with 6:22 left in the half cut a 29-19 Golden State lead down to eight and spawned a 12-0 run for the Wizards to the lead.

Toward the end of that run, Brad twice found Porzingis for big buckets, first a step-back jumper and moments later, an alley-oop.

“It was pretty good, working with KP, just getting a feel for where he likes the ball, his spots,” Brad said after the game. “I was very impressed with a lot of the guys I haven’t played with before, so it was definitely cool to see it. Delon [Wright] is an awesome defender. [Monte] is a really good point guard who can facilitate and find his shot in mid-range when he needs to. Rui was super aggressive like we need him to be.”

After the Warriors finally stopped Washington’s run and took back the lead, Brad buried his first three since January to cut the deficit down to two. However, those were his last points of the night. The Warriors took a four-point lead in at halftime and No. 3 took a seat for the rest of the game. The rest of the starters played sparingly in the second half as Golden State finished off a win. Although the result of the game tilted in favor of the defending champs, that said little about the progress the Wizards have made so far this preseason.

“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. Obviously some stuff we’ve got to build on and clean up, but for the most part we’re constantly building our camaraderie,” Brad said. “The sky’s the limit for us. We’ve just got to continue to build on it and not take any steps back.”

The Wizards and Warriors finish up their trip to Japan with a rematch on Sunday inside Saitama Super Arena. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. local time in Tokyo, 1 a.m. ET, and the game can once again be seen on NBC Sports Washington in D.C. and nationally on NBA TV.