The Washington Wizards are now, sadly, officially playing out the string, Sunday’s 118-109 loss to the Knicks eliminating them from playoff contention.
The Wizards are 34-44 after the loss, mathematically still in range of the 38-40 Bulls, but Chicago would win the tiebreaker based on a better conference record. Even in a three-way tie at 38-44 with the also 34-44 Magic, the Wizards would lose the three-way tiebreaker.
And so, another season comes to a virtual end with a week remaining, the Wiz a win away from matching last year’s win total but not enough left to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020-21. That season, when they finished 34-38 in the shortened post-pandemic schedule, is their only playoff berth since 2017-18, their last winning season at 43-39.
The two bright spots for the short-handed Wiz, who were missing four starters, were Corey Kispert, who set a career-high in scoring for the second straight game, and last year’s lottery pick, Johnny Davis, who got his first career start and scored a career-high 16 points.
“He played well very aggressive, and it was a big step for him,” head coach Wes Unseld Jr. said of Davis. “He’s dramatically improved, and it was a slow and steady progress.”
The Wizards have three of their last four at home, Wednesday’s game in Atlanta the only road contest with the Bucks (Tuesday), Heat (Friday), and Rockets (Sunday) coming to DC to finish out the season.
And, as the Wizards are now out of the postseason race, it is now fair to wonder whether Kyle Kuzma and Bradley Beal, who have each missed at least a week with injuries, and Kristaps Porzingis, who is out with a non-COVID illness, will simply be shut down for the season.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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