Advertisement

Wizards lose to Sixers in another woeful performance, need answers

Noel stonewalls Gortat. (Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)
Noel stonewalls Gortat. (Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)

The Washington Wizards have moved from genuine contention to serious disappointment over the course of just a few weeks. Unfortunately for them, there do not appear to be easy answers to their problems.

The Wizards faced the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center in need of a win after having lost five straight and 10 of their last 12. On paper, the opponent would have seemed to offer them a solid chance at a victory — the Sixers had lost five in a row themselves and quite famously suffer from a talent gap. So it's a mark of how bad things have gotten for Washington that they lost 89-81 in a listless display during which Philadelphia rarely looked particularly threatening. This was a truly bad basketball game, and the worst team in it held hopes of challenging for a title less than a month ago.

[Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

Despite the general character of the contest, the Sixers deserve credit for some quality execution in the final moments. Philly entered the last 2:45 of regulation up 79-75 and opened up a larger gap with two very good possessions in a row. The first ended with a nice drive and spin from the emphatically not geriatric Jason Richardson, who found Nerlens Noel for a pretty dunk. After John Wall split a pair of free throws at the other end, Noel managed another dunk on the ensuing possession. Check out both slams here:

The Sixers iced the game with an off-balance fadeaway from journeyman point guard Ish Smith, who signed all of five days ago:

The difficulty and timing of the shot made it clear that this was not to be the Wizards' night, and they only managed a single John Wall layup in the final 40 seconds.

Apart from those late baskets, the rest of the game looked a whole lot like this ragged, mad scramble for the ball:

Neither team impressed over the course of the game — they both shot 35 percent or worse, settled for bad looks, and could not execute with consistency. The difference, of course, is that the Sixers have played this way most of the season while the Wizards have been a fairly common pick to challenge for the East title.

The team that faced Philadelphia on Friday looked to have no chance of accomplishing such a feat. Playing against a Sixers frontcourt without any real post defense outside of Nerlens Noel, the once-fearsome interior combo of Marcin Gortat and Nene combined for just 14 shot attempts and two free-throw attempts in 55 combined minutes. The Wizards offense all too often involved John Wall or another perimeter player (21 points on 7-of-26 FG, 11 assists) settling for a jumper. The blame for these issues can be laid at the feet of every conceivable party — head coach Randy Wittmann and his staff, big men who can't make an impact, perimeter players struggling, et al. — but the end result has been that the Wizards look all out of sorts.

The issue is not just that the Wizards are losing games, but that they're doing it in embarrassing fashion. Friday's loss followed a very poor performance in Kevin Garnett's return to Minnesota on Wednesday in which the Wizards started with an 18-3 run and ended up losing by 20. Things are getting worse. Not every loss in this swoon has been awful, but they seem to be wearing on the team as a whole. This is not a happy group:

Can the Wizards turn it around soon? The schedule does not look especially kind — their next four games come against teams in the East's top eight — but struggling against the Sixers does not indicate that a few games against bad teams will help matters. Shooting guard Bradley Beal looks ready to return soon after missing the past eight games with toe and leg injuries, and the presence of a quality shooter and budding star will surely be a welcome one. But the Wizards have been so lackluster that it's hard to believe that bringing back one guy will solve everything. They need lots of changes to get back on track.

If they don't, the consequences may not be incredibly dire. At 33-26, the Wizards occupy the sixth spot in the East, which would match them up with the Cleveland Cavaliers if the placement holds. However, that looks unlikely, because the Cavs seem to have found their form and the Wizards are in a virtually tie with the fifth-place Milwaukee Bucks, who have one fewer loss. With just 23 games left to play, it would be shocking to see the Wizards drop any lower than 7th (now held by the 25-31 Miami Heat). There is no real worry of missing the playoffs entirely, so Washington will at least have an opportunity to find themselves in a postseason series. If they get the right matchup, they could make some noise.

Again, though, the issue right now is that they appear almost universally dysfunctional. Making the postseason is not necessarily good news. If the Wizards cannot improve, then it could be a nightmare scenario for Wittmann, who would likely be fighting for his job. There would be few things worse for the Wizards than being completely outclassed by one of the East's legitimate contenders. They were supposed to belong to that group, and the regression would be all too obvious.

- - - - - - -

Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!