Washington Wizards’ 8 Worst Losses of the 2015-2016 NBA Season
Washington Wizards’ Worst Losses of the Season
Most teams that don’t make the NBA Playoffs generally don’t deserve to. Short of cataclysmic injuries (think: 1996-97 Spurs) or ridiculous conference competition (2013-14 Suns), there aren’t too many excuses a team can make to explain not reaching a postseason where more than half the teams in the league qualify.
As this current regular season winds down, the Washington Wizards find themselves on the outside looking in, and as you can imagine, most of the carefully worded reasoning of why the team won’t be playing beyond April is rightfully falling on deaf ears.
The Wizards did lose the most man games to injury of any team in the league, but of the top four players on the team (John Wall, Bradley Beal, Marcin Gortat, and Otto Porter), only one missed significant time (Beal) and the games in which he did play, Washington sported just a 26-26 record.
The next explanation for the ongoing disaster is that the Wizards struggled with a drastic shift of offensive philosophy and weren’t able to make the necessary adjustments on the fly. That’s a very valid point; so what? No one held a gun to Grunfeld’s and Wittman’s heads, forcing them to play this style of basketball while concurrently not bringing in personnel or coaches capable of executing it.
And on and on the list must go, for no team who misses the playoffs when it has every belief in the world that it will in fact qualify can be without these excuses. Otherwise, each person will have to look themselves in the mirror and accept abject failure.
But I digress.
What a team like this is accompanied with, however, is a string of pivotal losses, sprinkled throughout the season that ultimately led to its downfall.
The Wizards are not a good team, so losing bad games shouldn’t be outside the realm of expectations. But, I’ve highlighted a few that especially stood out to me, based on a number of reasons that can most generally be tied back to the fact that the Wizards, are in fact, not good at basketball.
These games are laid out chronologically.
I intended to start at five and see where the painful process of reading recaps took me, and as you can imagine, that list increased. Behold, the graveyard of the 2015-16 Washington Wizards below:
Opponent: Oklahoma City Thunder
Date: 11/11/2015 – Result: L, 125-101
What Happened:
Oh, you remember this one.
The NBA scheduling gods, eager to get this marquee matchup on the slate, didn’t even wait until Thanksgiving to bring Kevin Durant to D.C. for the final time before his long-awaited free agency in the Summer of Sixteen. Prior to the game, Durant voiced his displeasure about Washington Wizards fans cheering him over rooting for their own team, sending all of us into a tailspin of confusion.
To worsen matters, Durant ended up getting hurt in the second quarter and sat out the rest of the game.
Westbrook tallied a tidy 22-11-11 in under 30 minutes of game time and John Wall had his first of many bad games vs. top competition, totaling just nine points and five assists in a blowout OKC victory.
Opponent: Charlotte Hornets
Date: 11/27/2015 – Result: L, 101-87
What Happened:
So far this season, the porous defense was on full display, but this game really brightened the lights on just how bad the offense was, even under the new scheme.
After breaking out to a seven point lead to start the 4th quarter, Washington laid over and died, getting outscored 27-6 in the final period and finished their last 19 possessions of the game missing all 17 field goal attempts and turning the ball over three more times for good measure.
Charlotte’s surprising run to top rung of the Eastern Conference playoffs was built on games like this, as Lamb, Batum, Walker, Williams, and Jefferson all were in double figures. Washington’s surprising run to top rung of the Draft Lottery incidentally was also much aided by games like this.
Opponent: Toronto Raptors
Date: 11/28/2015 – Result: L, 84-82
What Happened:
Geez, November was a rough month.
This game is the first close contest on our docket and it was a chance for the Washington Wizards to finally get back on track with a meaningful victory. As you know, Washington and Toronto had an intense recent history, after the Wizards utterly destroyed the Raptors in the previous year’s playoffs and this was the first matchup of the new season.
A defensive struggle to say the least, the Raptors committed 22 turnovers while Wall (not to be outdone) shot 6/25 from the field.
Ultimately the stomach punch came at the end of the game. After Wall missed 2 crucial free throws that would’ve put the Wizards up three (a prevailing theme this season), Cory Joseph hit a corner 3 at the buzzer and the Wizards were left with the moral-est of moral victories.
Opponent: Los Angeles Lakers
Date: 12/2/2015 – Result: L, 108-104
What Happened:
I mean…come the F$%@ on….
Opponent: Boston Celtics
Date: 1/16/2016 – Result: L, 119-117
What Happened:
The gap you just noticed was me falling asleep when I realized that the Washington Wizards effectively gave up on the season before the calendar even flipped. That being said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include at least one game against a Celtics team that ran so many laps around the Wizards this season that Brad Stevens had to leave the bench to treat his severe dizziness.
I thought about including one of the three highly unentertaining blowouts, but ultimately settled on the one game that Washington kept it close.
Stevens, the GOAT of out of timeout plays, drew up a perfect one for Jae Crowder to convert a layup with four seconds left. Wall was absolutely brilliant, finishing with 36 and 13, but left a layup just short at the buzzer.
This was Beal’s first game back after the annual stress reaction absence (soon to rival Chicago’s Circus Tour and San Antonio’s Rodeo Trip) and he chipped in 22. However, Isiah Thomas was just too much and the soon-to-be All-Star proved why he could go toe to toe with the game’s best.
Opponent: Chicago Bulls
Date: 2/24/16 – Result: L, 109-104
What Happened:
I was actually in the house for this one, sitting in some swanky courtside seats after a friend bestowed upon me the best gift I could have ever asked for. The Washington Wizards, however, didn’t do their part to complete my night as their lackluster effort persisted for 48 minutes and resulted in a loss to a Bulls team that was:
A) fighting for the same playoff spot as Washington and
B) missing Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Nikola Mirotic. Future Hall of Famers Taj Gibson and E’Twaun Moore combined for 34 and even the season debut of Alan Anderson couldn’t prevent the Wizards from losing to a Chicago team they usually play very tough.
Those seats were mad good though, no lie.
Opponent: Denver Nuggets
Date: 3/12/16 – Result: L, 116-100
What Happened:
After a brutal loss to Portland in overtime and an absolute no-show in Utah (both reasonable additions to this list), Washington was in a must-win situation in Denver to try and salvage their first West Coast road trip.
For three quarters the Wizards played as if they realized that as well, before the 4th quarter brought death by pick-and-roll.
The Nuggets’ reserves, totaling 75 points for the game, destroyed the Washington Wizards by outscoring them 41-17 and leaving coach and player alike totally befuddled.
Beal didn’t play in this contest but the loss was still inexcusable for a team beginning its slow descent a lottery it most likely wouldn’t hold its draft pick for.
Opponent: Minnesota Timberwolves
Date: 3/25/16 – Result: L, 132-129 (2OT)
What Happened:
Next: Wizards Sucked Accidentally and Now They're Stuck
SERIOUSLY MAN STOP LOSING TO THESE TERRIBLE TEAMS AT HOME!!!