WASHINGTON -- Smiles were in short supply earlier this season for John Wall and the Washington Wizards. As they end 2016, there's plenty of reason for joy beyond bringing in the New Year.

Trey Burke scored 20 of 27 his points in the first half as the Washington Wizards won their eighth straight home game with a 118-95 rout over the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.

John Wall had 19 points and 14 assists for the Wizards (16-16), who ended 2016 winning nine of 12 games and moving into playoff position despite starting 2-8.

"It's great. I think it was a great month we had," Wall said after Washington finished 10-5 in December. "We got to let this translate over to the New Year."

Washington shot 56.6 percent from the field despite playing without second-leading scorer Bradley Beal. Beal suffered a sprained right ankle in the first half of Wednesday's 111-105 win over the Indiana Pacers.

That high percentage came in part because Burke sank 10 of 12 field goal attempts including all five of his 3-point tries after going scoreless in the previous two games and totaling 22 points since Dec. 18.

"Trey just had an amazing night," Wizards coach Scott Brooks said.

Marcin Gortat's five dunks also helped. The starting center, not normally known for slams, had 19 points and 13 rebounds. Just don't sign the "Polish Machine" up for the All-Star game dunk contest just yet.

"Nah, man. He can barely jump over a phone book," Wall cracked. "You see how high he was getting? It was good to see him dunk today."

The Nets (8-24), who have lost seven of eight overall, could not jump into the win column on the road. The defeat was their 26th straight on the road against Eastern Conference opponents, including 13 this season. Trevor Booker and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson each scored 16 points.

Brooklyn's previous two games were both decided on buzzer-beaters. Wednesday's ended with Jimmy Butler's jumper giving the Chicago Bulls 101-99 home win. Washington's blistering start ended any thoughts of late game drama on Friday.

"They played great. I think they forced five or six turnovers right off the bat, so it got a good start," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. "It got into us. That being said, I'm disappointed with our performance. I think coming off two really competitive games against good teams, I felt like we should have come in here and played better. I'm disappointed in our group, that's rare this season."

Bojan Bogdanovic and Caris LeVert each scored 12 points and Brook Lopez had 11 for the Nets. Brooklyn fell to 0-2 against Washington this season.

"I think it was just our energy level," Lopez said of the performance. "It's something I think is a hallmark, that we have to hang our hat on every night to give ourselves a shot. It just wasn't there tonight."

Rookie Sheldon McClellan replaced Beal in the starting lineup and had eight points, but it was Burke who filled in offensively. He made all seven of his field goal attempts in the first half, including four 3-pointers, as the Wizards led 66-50 at halftime.

"You just got to be ready to play," Burke said. "Some games I don't know how much I'm going to play. Tonight, obviously, with Brad down I knew I was going to have to come in and be a spark off the bench and be ready to play."

Gortat dunked repeatedly in the third quarter for 11 points, and Wall's six assists in the period kept Brooklyn at arm's distance with a 91-77 lead entering the fourth quarter before the crowd of 16,461.

Washington outrebounded Brooklyn 44-32, scored 50 points in the paint and made 11 of 22 3-pointers.

Brooks had little interested in playoff talk 32 games into the season, but he acknowledged the climb back to .500.

"I give the players a lot of credit. They didn't put their heads down, they didn't point fingers, they didn't give in. they just kept charging ahead, kept climbing each day," He said. " We're excited to be .500, there's no question. It's not fun starting off the season 3-9. But I like the group's effort every day in practice. I knew that we would turn it around. But we can't be satisfied with 16-16. We got 50 games left to keep getting better."

NOTES: Nets G Jeremy Lin (strained left hamstring) missed his second straight game after playing the previous six, which followed a 17-game absence. F Joe Harris (hip pointer) missed his second straight game. ... Wizards C Daniel Ochefu (illness) was available after missing Wednesday's game. ... The Nets were allowing an NBA-worst 114.3 points per game before Friday. ... Washington won 118-113 at Brooklyn on Dec. 5. ... Brooklyn hosts the Utah Jazz on Monday. Washington starts a two-game Texas trip on Monday game at Houston. The Rockets won the first meeting 114-106 on Nov. 7.