Wizards tie franchise record with 16th straight loss

What is up, and welcome back to another episode of the Wizards podcast.

I'm your host Greg Finnberg, and today's episode we're going to be talking about some

franchise records, not the ones that you want to be talking about, but in a tanking season

where losses are honestly better than wins.

This is kind of a good record, as crazy as it sounds.

Wizards fell 145 to 113 to the New York Knicks, shorthanded Wizards team that really battled

for the first quarter and a half, and then pretty much downhill from that point on, but

they lost their 16th straight game, which ties the franchise record.

Fascinatingly enough, it's the fourth such time that they lost 16 games in a row since

the start of the 2024 calendar year.

Brian Geef took over January 31st, I believe, 2024, maybe January 26th, and then I think

from the 31st and on was the start of that first 16 game losing streak.

There's been four fascinating enough since the start of the 2024 calendar year, but they

lost again, obviously.

It's 16 games in a row, it's the fifth time in franchise history.

They've reached 16 games lost in a row, and what's crazy is they haven't lost that 17th

game.

They're perfect for no at the moment.

In that 17th game and they'll get another crack at doing that against a Utah Guest team

on Wednesday, that's also protecting their top 8 pick, and they want to lose, too.

Now that's in Salt Lake City, so it'll be an away game, but you never know, and so if

the Wizards were to break it there, it'd be five times they've gone to 16 and weren't

able to break it.

If they do, honestly, it's probably better because a loss there to Utah would all but lock

mathematically, all but lock Washington into a bottom four record, which would guarantee

they keep their top 8 protected pick.

That's the losing streak.

We'll have more on that in a bit, but I want to give you a game recap, because second

night of a back-to-back, nine players were out for Washington tonight.

Really, most of those nine, they're marquee guys.

A lot of them, they're star players, AD, Saur, Treyong, Trey Johnson, et cetera, and

only nine available players, but they competed, and so if you were doing errands or chores

on Sunday or making better use of your time watching some good marks madness games, because

during the Wizards game was the floor to Iowa game, and Iowa hit a game winning three

towards the end.

That was awesome to watch Kansas, St. John's was happening, I think a little bit during

the first half on a real game there, and Peterson looked really good at time, St. John's scored

the game winner at the buzzer.

So if you were watching any of those good college basketball games, that's fine, that's

what I'm here for, and hopefully it's about five to ten minutes I can get you in and out

with the recap of the game.

So I'll do that first, then I want to get some other things.

Like I mentioned, you didn't have your typical guys that are out like him, Whitmore,

DeAngelo Russell, you know, Kishon George, Anthony Davis, Treyong, those guys are out

and they're out for a bit, and we know that they weren't supposed to play tonight.

You had Leaky Black who was supposed to be out, he was listed as out, and the Wizards

I think had to activate him just because they didn't have enough bodies, he didn't play

too much, but he was actually active after being in active for a while.

A join Reese again, they have to manage him on that two-way deal, so he wasn't active

tonight.

And then obviously you have Trey Johnson who missed his second game in a row with

right foot soreness and then Alex Tsar, who after playing the other night was out tonight

with left big toe, capsulitis, injury management, I would assume it's back to back, doubt

they'll place our many back to backs, but Trey Johnson obviously out as well.

So I think that's nine total Wizards that were out for tonight's game and obviously

nine that were healthy.

Not the greatest collection of individual basketball players, the Wizards could throw out

there, obviously they're all world talents, but not the greatest starting lineup, not

the greatest bench for Brian Keith only four healthy reserves on that bench, so a short

rotation tonight against a really good next team in New York, where the next have been

terrific and strong this season.

And it went honestly a little different than expected, at least to open the game.

Like very competitive opening court.

You had a really good start from Jaden Hardy, who had nine points, made three of his first

five.

Triples, he started getting himself going and the Wizards were only down 32 to 27 at the

end of the first quarter.

They couldn't guard Jalen Brunson and they couldn't box out the cad or Mitchell Robinson

and you knew at some point that would be an issue, but they they kind of hung close

for a while there in the first.

And then you have a big burst from Sharif Cooper, who it's a really tough midi.

You have Anthony Gill get a steal and a big dunk in the bench reacts to it.

And all of a sudden it's tied at 38, a little bit into the second quarter.

You knew it would be sustained, but it was it was nice to see the Wizards at least putting

a little bit of a scare into the mix and making Mike Brown call a couple of time outs and

adjust.

And that's all you can really ask for from this group to compete a little bit, but then

the next start to break away after that.

There's a 16 to two run that sort of opens up this, this big 14 point cushion for New

York.

And they really didn't look back since.

I mean, they they wanted to have time up 16 at 68 to 52.

Gill was really good actually in the first half of the 11 points and for that matter,

for the entire game.

Like he's a solid player, more known for what he does off the court in terms of being

a good teammate of mentor.

But in 26 minutes of the bench, he'll have 18 points made eight of his 10 shots, two

or four from three, three steals.

You know, I thought he played a really solid game, all things considered.

And obviously Sharif Cooper had had seven, Jay and Hardy put in some work.

And then to, you know, into the third quarter, Justin Buchovich sort of got going a little

bit quite first half, but went a little bit of a personal, a mini ADO run himself to

finish with 13 points on five and nine from the field, three of six from from three.

He had a nice push shot and then back to back threes to four, some like brown time out.

I think cut the lead to 12.

So like the Wizards were, were down, they're down to 20 and then Tristan goes on this run.

And they're in the third quarter still kind of hanging around.

But Tristan didn't play after that.

He ended up exiting the game with lower back tightness and didn't return.

So that's something obviously to monitor moving forward.

It seems like with this team at this point, the littlest injury will be ballooned to be a

big injury that they need to be completely conservative with.

That's a big word around there, treated conservatively.

And maybe they'll conservatively treat Tristan's lower back tightness.

So maybe he, he doesn't play against the Utah Jazz.

And if he doesn't, and maybe Alex Sarr and Tray Johnson does don't play, maybe the Wizards

are down to eight healthy bodies.

And their only big man is Anthony Gill.

And that of Julian Rees plays, maybe that's two.

So we'll see how they treat it.

But if you, if I've learned anything throughout this year, it's that the Wizards are going

to be very cautious at any type of injury that comes across their desk.

And so Tristan ended up exiting.

But obviously a pretty good showing from him and then Jane Hardy I thought played really

go kind of started chucking a little bit towards the end, but finished with 25, which is a

season high and Wizards high for him in 30 minutes, 25 points, 9 to 18 from the field,

7 to 13 from three, really knocked down.

I mean, it seems like he can really be a, I wouldn't say maybe a nine or 10 man rotation

guy next year when fully healthy from this Wizards team.

But I think he's proving that like, yeah, when he has it on, like if you need a volume

score off the bench or you need someone to come in, space the floor and knock down

at three, no, why not go to, to Jane Hardy.

And so he sort of, I think he's played well enough to wear, I'm okay with the Wizards

keeping him on the roster two more years at six million a year, pretty good team friendly

deal for the production.

You might give you a thing he's averaging about eight or nine points per game this season

off the bench.

So I thought he was really good, got to his spots, but more so, you know, created shots

off the dribble, catching shoot opportunities, kind of lived on that three point line.

So I thought him, Tristan and AD were really good.

You got 11 off the bench from Sharif on 5 to 10.

He was solid 13 more for for ball all 14 from Bob 14 and eight for Bob, eight assists

that is four of nine from the field was a minus 33.

So that's not good and will probably 11 points on four of nine from the field.

So again, not, not nothing crazy except for Jane Hardy having a season high.

The team played as good as you could ask the team to play, you know,

you can't really expect much from this group considering all the injuries they had going

up on the road against a team that's very good at home and it's just very good in general

in the next who had pretty much their full collection of, you know, rotational players

tonight and I mean, there wasn't no answer for Jalen Bronson who's just unbelievable cat 26,

no answer for him either and they both, they all, all their starters played sub 30 minutes.

So these could have been 30 balls if they kept playing, but no answer for cat 26 and 16.

You know, you obviously had Mitchell Robinson 10 and 10 did a miss a field goal off the bench.

He always kills the wizards. They're the next are really good. They had their full rotation tonight

and they dominated the team. They probably showed up by what 22 points. So this game went about as

you expected this game to go apart from a competitive first about 15 or so minutes.

But yeah, I don't want to keep you too long in terms of a game recap itself because you're probably

listening and saying, all right, I get it. Like they never left healthy bodies. They got blown out.

They lost 16 in a row. All these things we knew. And I can say we knew because if you listen

back to the part I did when this team lost to New Orleans, which I believe might have been,

I don't know what loss in a row that was. I mean, I can just look at their schedule right now

because I have a computer. So maybe I should go and do that. But the loss, the losing streak started

in February, on February 22nd. And now it is March 22nd. And the wizards still haven't won a game.

So that's a full month that the wizards have gone without winning a game, which is hilarious.

They get it. Well, this isn't a singular month. But like a full like 30 plus day period, I would assume

since they have won a game, which is hilarious. I think they did it in December or January last

season with their 16 game losing streak. But this one obviously started, I think New

New Orleans game. So after that, there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. So I guess

that was their eighth straight loss against New Orleans. And then I was like, look, these next

eight games, you're playing playoff contending teams. And with the exception of Golden State,

but they still got the job done without Steph Curry against the wizards. And so now you're at 16

games. And I figured that once you got over those hurdles of Utah and you lost to them, you got

over the hurdle of New Orleans, you lost to them. There was just no way you were winning a game

until that 16th game maybe against Utah. And here we are. It's almost like I watched this team a

lot and I know this team and I know when the win and lose. But they fall to 16 and 55. And their

next game is Wednesday against the Utah Jazz in Utah. It's their final meeting against Utah this

season. And it's going to be a very interesting game. When you look at the separation of the

tank standings, I believe at the moment, it should be five games in the win column. And I

use the win column a lot more than maybe some people would like me to just because a lot of

teams have played different amounts of games. So it's hard to really say, well, there are only two

games up or three games up when realistically you know the wizards probably won't win much throughout

the rest of the season. And so the wins I think is what I'm tracking the most in the tank standings.

But both kind of work here because both Washington and Utah played 71 games. So they have 11 games

remaining each. You know, Washington is a full five games worse than the Utah Jazz. So they have

five game lead on Utah in both the win column, obviously, and in the tank standings, which is huge,

right? You consider Washington at this point. And I tried to do the math for everyone. But in order

for Washington to finish outside the bottom four, meaning that they would have a not not I don't

want to say tied because that put it up to a coin toss. So for fun sake, let's just go with the

wizards actually finishing with a better record than the Utah Jazz. They would need and this is

considering like let's say Utah goes oh and 11, which I doubt will happen because they have some

easy games. I think they still have to play at least Sacramento or Brooklyn one more time this season.

But for argument's sake, right? Just to prove how much of a good spot the wizards are in the

tank standings and to keep their pick. Hypothetically, let's say the Utah Jazz lose out. They go

oh and 11 for those final 11 games, right? The wizards would have to go six and five over their final

11 games. This is a team that hasn't won since February 22nd. It's on the 16 game losing streak.

They're resting a lot of guys that probably could play that are injured, but probably in the playoffs

could play right now, being very conservative with a lot of those injuries. And they'll probably

continue to do that maybe even more egregiously as we get to the end of the season. That team is now

winning six games in its final 11. They're not going six and five. Let's say they be Utah, right? Let's

just go down for for fun's sake. Let's go down the the wizards remaining 11 games. Let's say they

beat Utah. Okay, you have a four game cushion before you even think about tying the Utah Jazz

record wise at Golden State fighting for a playoff spot. That's a loss at Portland fighting for a

playoff spot or a play in spot. That's probably a loss. So that's that's two losses right there.

You're one and two at the Lakers. We're playing arguably the best basketball of any team. The league

of the one eight or nine in a row. That's a hundred percent of loss. So that's one in three, right?

I mentioned only five only five losses they can really have before they really solidify

themselves as a bottom four team at home against Philly. And that's a spot maybe you win, but at that

point, like, you know, Paul George should be back from his suspension. Maxie should be healthy.

Joel and Bied potentially could be healthy. That's a loss. That's one in four. At Miami fighting

for a playoff positioning, you just have Bams for 83 on you. That's a loss. And then you get to

at Brooklyn and then two games versus Chicago. You could win any of those games for argument sake.

Let's say the Wizards win all three of those games. That's now four wins and five losses over that

11 game stretch. And right now you would be even if Utah kept losing, you're at 20 wins. And

Utah Jazz are at 21. And even if they kept losing, they are stuck at at least 21. So even

if you beat Utah, you beat Chicago twice, you win at Brooklyn. Those are really your only winable

games. I would say over the 11 games you have left. That puts the Wizards at 20 wins. And I

would assume 60 losses with two games remaining still on the bottom four. And then you have

home against the Miami Heat who you again lost you by 30 and allowed the second most points by

an individual in a single game in NBA history to ban with 83. That's a big game for Miami. I

would assume play opposition wise, you're going to lose that one. And then you close the season at

Cleveland who maybe the resting starters before the playoffs, but the east is very tight. So maybe

you get unlucky there. But I still let's say they don't do that. That's a loss all day every day. And so

you lose what seven of those games. And I'd say four at max is wins. And that's if you give the

Wizards all those wins to Brooklyn and to Utah who they lost already to Utah at home. And

against Brooklyn, they're one and two in the season series with a recent loss at Brooklyn by a lot

of points. Chicago, they're tanking, but again, they're still playing Guzelas. They're still playing

giddy. They're still playing guys to my knowledge. So I gave them a sweep, but they could easily

again lose one or if not both of those games. And even if they win all four of those winable games,

I still think they'll lose the remaining seven. And they'll still be underneath Utah. And that's

even if Utah doesn't win another game. So maybe you're thinking Greg, what was the point of that

four or five minutes that you just kind of rambled on about what ifs, right? The point is that keeping

that pick has been the biggest priority all season. They've the Wizards have sacrificed development

of their young core and getting good in game reps, getting that rhythm going, that camaraderie,

that team chemistry with Trey Young and others. They've risked that. And I think rightfully so

at the expense of making sure that they get a pick in this year's draft, that they keep their

top of your protected pick. And I think the point of that exercise is to say it's been shaky at times,

but they're in an incredible, incredible, incredible spot right now. And if they lose against Utah,

that lead widens to six games with 10 games remaining. It takes away another winable game. And if

you're the Wizards, you're not winning more than four or five of these games, let alone six or

seven of these remaining games to get outside the top or the bottom four records in the week. So

really good stuff from the Wizards and their tank will be back on Wednesday to see if they,

if they somehow break that record. The Jazz Maxion playing good basketball. So you never know.

But there was another notable result and a good result for the Wizards and the tank standings

tonight because it was the first of two games again between the Brooklyn Nets and the Sacramento

Kings. This one was in Sacramento and the Kings tried to blow it, but they couldn't and they came

out with a win. So that puts them at 19 wins. So the Wizards right now are a full two and a half

games up on Sacramento in the tank standings and a full three games up on them in the win column.

I believe Sacramento has played 72 games with Wizards have played 71. That's why the numbers are a

little different, a little off between each thing. But the point of it is Sacramento is 19 wins.

The Wizards might get there like a max and the Kings still have to go one more time to Brooklyn.

And even to Brooklyn wins that and Brooklyn's at 18 wins and you get a little bit of a cushion.

So Wizards in pretty right now, they've lost 16 in a row. So the Indiana Pacers,

the Wizards however are at 16 and 55 Indiana's at 15 and 56. So one game difference between them

in the tank standings, I think it's going to be really tough to put the Wizards to jump Indiana.

At least tie them for the league's worst record. I don't know if the Wizards will lose out.

They have a couple winable games. For Indiana, I think the one winable game they have is against

Brooklyn and they easily could lose that game as well. And they have incentive to do so because

I believe their pick is protected I think one to four and then it was like nine to 14 or some

weird stuff like that. And so all the incentive in the world is for Indiana to finish with the

worst record as possible. Get the best ping pong ball combinations. So that's going to be pretty

tough to jump them. But I think in terms of Sacramento, the Wizards are looking pretty good.

They're looking like at least they're all but guaranteed to finish in the bottom four and also

off that they're looking pretty good to finish in the bottom three and we'll see where they go

from there in terms of the losses. Before I let you go, I had another thing that I noticed

Oh, I forgot to mention this too before we get there. Dustin Champenny suspended one game for his

role in Saturday's altercation, Ethany Gill. Find 35,000 for for form tackling AJ Mitchell.

And then AJ Mitchell was suspended one game. Jay the Williams find 50k. Case him all is fine 35k for

their role as well. I think it's fair. You know, I think Mitchell and Champenny were the ones

that's where sparked it. They were the most physical. Champenny kind of slapped Mitchell.

One game's suspension makes sense, but Justin served it against the Knicks. So he'll be back on

Wednesday. But I also noticed towards the end of that Knicks game, it kind of looked like if

you ever go to high school basketball games, it kind of looked like it was a varsity game and

towards the end, the actual starters and the top team had just blown the doors off of whatever

other team they were playing and rightfully so you have like a 35 40 point game towards the

end of the fourth quarter. And so you empty your bench, right? And you put in all the guys that

don't typically play or don't play that much. And then whenever they do something go to make a

basket, the entire crowd gets behind them, you have the whole team jumping up and down and

being excited for them. That was what it was sort of like at the end of the Wizards game with

facom.dea in the game and then Tyler Colock, Mo Diawara for the Knicks, that's kind of the end of

their bench and do our plays a lot, but not as much as he was playing tonight because the blowout

and him and Colock can't miss from three and they're chanting for Colock in the stands and

they're freaking out anytime it makes a three. Like it's a clutch close game. I just found that

funny. It was for the next cool moment for the Wizards again, it's another one of those embarrassing

moments you can add to the season. Like you are the laughing stock of the league and you're

fine with it clearly because this was your plan. You knew that you wouldn't get the best press

or the best publicity when you're intentionally trying to do everything you can to lose games for

an organizational standpoint, not from the players but from an organization standpoint. I think

it's deserved, but you know you're kind of the laughing stock and next year hopefully they can

rebuild that image around the league because you got a Chris Weber came out recently and called

them the Washington generals. Everyone's calling on the Washington generals now. You know that's

the stick and that's the nickname you get when you're tanking as egregiously and losing as much

during the rebuild as they have. And so you can't be too surprised by it, but I thought it was

pretty funny at the end that I mean they're just freaking out. They haven't fun because they know

the game's over. They knew it was over for it started realistically. But again, can't fault the

guys they competed tonight. Short bench, short rotation. So credit to them. Should be a little

bit healthier next game would assume champagne is back and you know we'll see about the other

injuries the saw and and tray, but that's probably going to do it for this one. Another shorter

episode. I don't want to keep you too long. I mean this game wasn't that fun and realistically.

You had a couple big showings from Jane Hardy and Anthony Gill actually played pretty well.

You had some good showings from the law and ball of and Cooper, but not much else to really show

for it's their 16th straight loss and and we'll we'll be back on Wednesday to break down that

Utah Jazz game when maybe they snapped a losing streak at 16 games again for the fifth time in

franchise history or maybe they break the record and that extends to 17 games and and then so on

after that and then they'll probably keep extending after that as well when you think about it

because if you go Washington's schedule like if they lose that Utah game they are I would assume

five more games that I think are all losses and so you're looking at 22 games in a row before

that that Brooklyn game on April 5th so we're getting there we're getting to the end only 11

games left of this tanking stuff rebuilding stuff hopefully and it's a slow slow crawl to the

finish line but I'll obviously be here every step of the way to break it down and I'll be back

on Wednesday to recap that Utah Jazz game but that's going to do it for this episode of the

Wizards Podcast. Thanks for listening as always. Go Wiz.