Dybantsa outduels Peterson as Wizards beat Jazz in Summer League opener

AJ Dybantsa scored 27 points and the Washington Wizards beat the Utah Jazz 92-88 in the Las Vegas Summer League opener at the Thomas & Mack Center, turning the first head-to-head meeting between the top two picks in the 2026 NBA Draft into an immediate measuring stick. Darryn Peterson finished with 24 points as the two rookies carried the night’s biggest spotlight.

Dybantsa set the tone early and finished with seven rebounds and two assists, with 19 of his points coming in the first half. Peterson added three rebounds and three assists in his Summer League debut, and Utah’s fourth-quarter push, which the game summary showed as a 26-22 frame, was not enough to erase Washington’s edge. The Jazz had arrived in Las Vegas after going 3-0 in Salt Lake City Summer League, but the opener belonged to the No. 1 pick’s burst and the Wizards’ late hold.

After the game, Dybantsa framed the matchup as the kind of rivalry that has already formed long before either player reached the NBA. “Every time I play against him its a battle,” Dybantsa said, noting that Peterson had beaten him three times before and that this was his first win against him. The result gave Dybantsa an early head-to-head win in a matchup that had been circled throughout the pregame buildup.

The performance fit the profile that made Dybantsa the top pick. NBA.com’s draft profile said he earned Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year honors as a freshman at Saint Sebastian’s, led the Nike Peach Jam in scoring at 25.8 points per game, was born in Boston and raised in Brockton, and won FIBA U19 World Cup MVP after helping Team USA take gold. His scoring was not just volume in Las Vegas; it came with control, especially in the first half, when he repeatedly turned touches into clean looks before Utah could settle in.

Peterson entered with a decorated résumé of his own. Kansas Athletics said he was the 2025 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Boys High School Player of the Year, that the award began in 1987, and that Peterson became the third Jayhawk to win it. In Las Vegas, he showed enough shot-making and ball handling to keep the game close, but Washington’s win and Dybantsa’s 27-point debut set the first benchmark in what could become one of the league’s defining rookie comparisons.