The Wizards put a two-game losing streak to bed by managing to defeat a Nick Young-less Philadelphia 76ers squad, 90-87, despite a late surge fueled by Jrue Holiday. But, Washington didn’t escape without damage. Rookie Bradley Beal went down with an ankle sprain with just over two minutes left and did not return. He is likely to miss some time, but how much has yet to-be-determined. The injury, or at least the sight of Beal crumbled on the floor in the aftermath, left Wizards nation and the immediacy of Twitter gasping for breath — some quickly speculated that the issue was with his knee. After the game, Beal admitted that he initially thought it was worse than it was, but said that x-rays showed no significant damage to his ankle. He walked on crutches in the locker room; from my perspective, there didn’t look to be too much swelling.

Below, we have Randy Wittman’s post-game opener, my ESPN.com “Daily Dime Live” reaction submission, and then a video of Beal talking about his ankle injury.

Post-Game Randy

[Spoiler Alert: Wittman talks about laptops again.]

The Reaction

MVP: John Wall. He answered a seven-point fourth quarter from Jrue Holiday with six points of his own, all with under 95 seconds left to play. Wall put the Wizards up one point on a pair of free throws with just over a minute left and then sealed the deal with a jumper to put Washington up three with 4.4 seconds left.

X factor: Nene, returning after missing the last two games with a sore shoulder, was Washington’s true x factor. His huge offensive rebound with 27 seconds left gave Wall the chance to be the hero.

That game was … plodding with a semi-frantic finish. These two stalwart defensive teams pounded each other’s willing offenses into submission. But an A.J. Price alley-oop to Jan Vesely to end the third quarter later ignited an entertaining battle between Holiday, Wall, and Bradley Beal (before the rookie sprained his ankle with two minutes left).

Beal on His Ankle

Beal being carried off

[via TAI's Adam McGinnis from the crowd]