WASHINGTON -- The first three times the Washington Wizards reached .500, they lost their next game. On Wednesday against Boston, the Wizards get their fourth shot at the break-even point, and they hope its the last time. "Its not a magical thing (where) I think all of a sudden fairy dust is going to fall on us if we get over .500 (and) were not going to lose another game," Washington coach Randy Wittman said. The Wizards havent been over .500 since Oct. 31, 2009, when they were 2-1. After their 107-99 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, they were in no mood to admit that it was always on their mind. Players shouted to each other to ignore questions about the mark, but none did. "Were aware of it, but we just have to not even think about it," Bradley Beal said. Beal nearly had his first career triple-double. Two days after he missed 12 of his 14 shots in a loss to Detroit, Beal had 22 points -- 13 of them in the second quarter when Washington built a 10-point halftime lead. He also had nine rebounds, a season high, and eight assists, equaling his career best. Marcin Gortat had 19 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Seraphin had 16 points for Washington. John Wall added 14. Each time the Wizards reached .500 this season, their next game was at home, and they lost to Milwaukee, Dallas and Detroit. "Were done with that," Gortat said. "Every time we talk about being a .500 team and getting over .500, we have teams coming in here and just punking our butts." Michael Carter-Williams led Philadelphia, which has lost seven of eight, with 31. Thaddeus Young had 18. Spencer Hawes had 11 points and had a season high 16 rebounds. Carter-Williams and Young scored the first 19 Philadelphia points in the third, but the Sixers trailed 70-66 midway through the period. Washington led 86-73 after three. The Wizards were ahead 100-79 with 6:07 to play, but Philadelphia scored 13 straight to trail by eight with 2:26 left. Washington didnt make a field goal for more than eight minutes in the fourth quarter. Wittman substituted for his starters, but after the bench played poorly, the starters came back in to stabilize things. "Youre always on audition," Wittman told his bench. "Those guys got to learn. Guys that want to play or think they should be in rotations better show me out there where it counts." While the Wizards are 20-20 and hope to reach the halfway point of their season a game over .500, the Sixers are 13-28. Expectations were low when the season began, but Philadelphia won its first three over Miami, Washington and Chicago. With more than three weeks until the league pauses for the All-Star game, coach Brett Brown is still hopeful his team can improve. "Youre getting ready for spring break, and everybodys going to Fort Lauderdale, and theres a time where you can dig in pre-All-Star break and finish this middle third of the season with some grunt," Brown said before the game. In his rookie season, Carter-Williams said it was hard to sometimes stay with it. "Ive never played this long of a season so Im learning each and every day and Im going through it a little bit. My body is tired a little bit, mentally Ive got to stay strong," Carter-Williams said. Carter-Williams was 13 for 22 from the field, had six rebounds and five assists as he tried to keep Philadelphia competitive. "He felt the need to take the game and try and put us back in a position where we could inch our way back in it, and he did," Brown said. NOTES: Wizards swingman Glen Rice was assigned to Iowa of the D-League. Rice had right wrist surgery last month, and coach Randy Wittman said that he needs some playing time and could return to the team during its upcoming four-game road trip, which begins on Friday. ... Sixers G Tony Wroten is out with a sprained right ankle. Brown refused to estimate how long he will be sidelined. Wroten sustained the injury on Saturday in Chicago. ... Philadelphia F Brandon Davies missed the game with a dislocated right pinkie. ... Washington F Trevor Booker was out with a sprained left ankle. ... Adam Silver, who will succeed David Stern as NBA commissioner next month, sat with Wizards owner Ted Leonsis. Vince Carter Magic Jersey . - Chris Davis hit a two-run double, scoring Nelson Cruz in his Orioles debut in Baltimores 9-7 win over to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. D.J. Augustin Jersey . Minutes after the previously winless Colts got their first win, 27-13 over Tennessee, team vice chairman Bill Polian said the four-time league MVP will not play this season though he has begun throwing to teammates at the team complex. http://www.magicauthentic.com/kids-dwight-howard-magic-jersey/ . Spains victory rendered Frances 3-0 win against Finland meaningless as Spain needed just one point to secure passage to Brazil. Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema scored either side of Joona Toivios own-goal as France advanced to the playoff among the eight best second-place finishers. Timofey Mozgov Jersey . The outdoor event will be played on Dec. 31 between alumni of the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Grant Hill Magic Jersey . -- Kael Mouillierat scored three times and set up one more as the St.ST. LOUIS -- The indoor football stadium that the St. Louis Rams call home is running out of money as the NFLs team long-term future in the city remains murky. The publicly-funded Edward Jones Dome anticipates needing an extra $40 million to cover maintenance over the next 15 years, the St. Louis Post -Dispatch (bit.ly/1pGZkMd) reported Wednesday. The St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, which owns the downtown dome, expects to exhaust its $16 million in savings in six years. The dome receives a total of $24 million annually from the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the state of Missouri for maintenance and to pay off construction debt , but those payments are scheduled to cease over the next decade. And the stadiums future remains in limbo as lease negotiations between St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the stadium authority drag on. The Rams can break their 30-year lease after the upcoming season, which would be a decade early. Brian McMurtry, the authoritys executive director, is asking the three governments to not only continue providing at least $4 million for annual upkeep payments but to also consider sending the dome an additional $40 million in cash, or selling $40 million in new bonds. Hes also suggested putting several stadium-related items on the citys bond issue list for a public vote as early as this November. "Im going to tell you, they dont know how theyre going to do it," he said. "But they want to know what its going to take." Dome maintenance is almost entirely dependent on public dollars -- unlike Busch Stadium, a private ballpark funded largely by the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Scottrade Center, which is maintained by the ownners of the St.dddddddddddd Louis Blues and was built with $135 million from local companies. To help entice the Rams to stay, the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, which manages the dome, in 2012 offered a $124 million improvement plan that included a bigger scoreboard and better club seating, with the Rams paying slightly more half those costs. The team countered with a far more ambitious proposal that called for a new roof with a sliding panel and a bevy of improvements that would keep the city convention centre in the dome closed for three years. The team didnt put a price tag on its request, but city officials estimated the upgrades would cost $700 million. "We cant come up with a long-term solution until we know what the relationship is going to be with the Rams," said Jim Shrewsbury, chairman of the stadium authoritys board. The stadium authority sold bonds in 1991 to build the $300 million dome, which opened in 1995. The sponsors agreed to a 30-year payment plan. The state would send the stadium authority $10 million a year toward debt repayment, plus $2 million for upkeep. The city and county each would pay half of that. University of Chicago economist Allen Sanderson said the conundrum facing St. Louis civic leaders is not uncommon when it comes to paying for aging public sports arenas. "Estimates of revenues tend to be overstated and costs played down, or at least pushed off to the future," he said. "Youve got this combination, on the city side, of public officials worried about the near future, not the long term, and these sports franchises that have an enormous amount of market power. And thats a bad combination for taxpayers." 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