The Wizards and Suns combined to score the most points in an NBA game since 2008, and Bradley Beal and Thomas Bryant put up some historic individual numbers in leading Washington to a 149-146 triple-overtime home win on Saturday.
The 295 combined points were the most in a game since April 6, 2008, when the Denver Nuggets and Seattle SuperSonics combined to score 298 in two OTs.
Phoenix became the first team to score 145 points in a game and lose since that game more than 10 years ago, when the Sonics, in their second-to-last game in Seattle before moving to Oklahoma City, prevailed 151-147.
With All-Star point guard John Wall sidelined due to illness, the Wizards were led by Beal's first career triple-double: 40 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists. He became the seventh player in NBA history and fourth in the past 35 years to go 40/10/15 in a game. Oscar Robertson, who accomplished the feat four times, is the only player to do it more than once.
"It's tiring, but it's fun," Beal told reporters. "You always embrace those type of games, competitive games down to the wire. It was definitely a gut check for us. We have John down and a lot of guys out. We added five new guys? You look at our second group. It was like a group of new guys out there.
"So it was good for us to be able to adjust on the fly. It was just about effort, playing hard and doing it together."
Bryant scored a career-high 31 points on a perfect shooting performance. He became only the fifth player to shoot 14-for-14 or better from the field in a game in NBA history and the first since Gary Payton in 1995.
At one point, Bryant scored 16 of 18 points for Washington across a stretch of the first and second overtime.
"It's amazing,'' the second-year forward said. "I had no idea. I was just in the flow of the game. I just let the game come to me, and as soon as I felt like I was in the rhythm of it, I just went out and took it.''
All 14 of Bryant's field goals came in the restricted area. The only player with more makes without a miss in the restricted area in the past 20 seasons is Shaquille O'Neal, who went 15-for-15 on Feb. 27, 2009. Bryant also went 3-for-3 from the free throw line.
Beal, who scored eight straight points for Washington in the third overtime, is only the second Wizards player to record a 40-point triple-double, joining Chris Webber, who went for 40/10/10 in 1995. It was the eighth time Beal had scored 40 points for Washington, matching Michael Jordan for sixth-most in franchise history.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.