Nothing much of note happened to the Washington Wizards Monday night, which is to say the same thing that usually happens to them happened again. They lost their 14th game in succession, a routine 130-108 loss to the truncated Dallas Mavericks, and in so doing became the 98th team in NBA history to compile a losing streak that long. We mention that only because the 97th team to do it was the Wizards back in November, when they lost 16 straight before the holiday sales had time to gather steam. They are 6-39 this morning, the 15th-worst record after 45 games in history, and only one game better than last year's Pistons, who lost Games 4 through 31.
That Pistons team was thought to be among the worst of all time, and for two months it was. But whatever passes as desire for a team that finished 14-68 flashed as often as not after their losing streak; by a stretchy definition, those Pistons played hard, or at least as hard as a doomed team can be expected to play.
These Wizards are different. They get to the end quickly, stamping out all internal hope with a swiftness and sureness seen only one other time in league history, and last night was a surrender of noteworthy speed. They came, they saw, they fell behind by 26 after one quarter, and by as much as 38 midway through the second. They seemed to listen to their so-very-doomed head coach Brian Keefe when he tried to buck up their spirits. He knew better of course, but he is still required to do the dance. Keefe had to keep them at least moderately attentive to the plan, whatever it is, because some of the fellas are going rogue (more on that later) despite the fact that the team had just lost the first quarter to Klay Thompson alone, 21-16. The rest of the Mavs were just around to keep things legal.
The final margin of non-victory, a tidy 22 points, was only slightly higher than their yearly average, and marked the 34th time in those 39 losses in which the Wizards had lost by double digits. Right now, they have the second-highest margin of defeat in NBA history, behind only the 1992-93 Mavericks, who finished 11-71 and lost 58 of those 71 games by double digits. At this rate, the Wizards will win 11 games and be within 10 another four times before the season ends or they disband.
And disbanding does not seem that unreasonable a thought. Remember that the Wizards also ran up a 16-game losing streak last season, which means that (a) they know how to do this through the rigors of experience, and (b) Keefe, who has been the coach for all three bottoming-outs, knows it too. Assuming he isn't shown the door out of mercy before season's end, he may well challenge Quinn Buckner (of the 1994 Mavericks) and Bill Hanzlik (of the 1998 Nuggets) for the worst record by a coach allowed to stay the entire year.
You may be curious about how the players are handling all this, but you don't need to be. They're pretty well fried. Kyle Kuzma, whom the Wiz took from the Lakers four years ago because of his skillset and winning pedigree (he was part of L.A.'s COVID championship), is the first to admit he's not working off the organizational play sheet any more. After scoring 30 in Saturday's loss to Phoenix, Kuzma told The Athletic’s Josh Robbins that "I think I just decided to be myself and not really just try to fit into everything that we’re doing here, and just really played in the moment.” (Robbins, who has covered this shipwreck for five seasons now, really should have been the one to say he's not trying to fit in any more either.) “I think my mom helped me out with that," Kuzma added. "I saw her today." When asked to clarify, Kuzma said, "I mean just not trying to fit into what we’re trying to do here. Just being more assertive, demanding the ball, not just going out there and trying to let people develop. Just playing my game.”
On Monday, Kuzma shot 3-of-11 in 21 minutes, and the Wiz were down 86-50 when he was taken out for prudence's sake. He did not leave an impression that he was playing for himself any more than any of the other Wizards. Even if he was, would you blame him? In his last 99 games in uniform, Kuzma has been on the winning side 15 times; his mother probably should have said something to him before this.
The Wizards play the other three Eastern Conference bottom-feeders (Toronto, Brooklyn, and Charlotte) in the next 10 days, and if they can maintain their defiant losing ways, they could both make this season truly memorable in that wishing-for-the-power-to-forget kind of way and ease the District's twin pains of watching the Commanders' season end and the Nationals begin spring training. One thing is for sure—if the Wizards are losing, they won't make it a long drawn-out process. They'll get right to the point so as not to draw too much attention to themselves, let alone rile the other team. They might catch your eye every now and then to remind you who, what, and why they are, as they did last night, but for the most part, they’re just going to go about their stinky business, too ashamed to apologize. As long as they don't threaten Detroit's 28-game losing streak from 2023, they're probably safe from public notice. But keep a thought for Josh Robbins. He has to be there for every glorious minute—all seven of them per game.
