Basketball is back, and the Washington Wizards have a chance to immediately make up some crucial ground in the playoff race.
When NBA Commissioner Adam Sterling starts calling out names during the 2020 NBA Draft, he’ll be welcoming a lot of great talent to the league. Some of those talents might be franchise-altering ones. The types you can’t pass up. But the Washington Wizards, a popular preseason pick to be the Eastern Conference’s worst squad, don’t have their eyes on the draft.
Instead, the Wizards have their eyes on the NBA playoffs.
That’s right. As we head out of the All-Star break, the 20-33 Washington Wizards are actually right in the thick of the playoff hunt. Has anything ever been more deserving of the Paul Rudd-Hot Ones meme?
After winning seven of their final 12 games before the break, the Wizards sit within striking distance of the Orlando Magic for the East’s eighth seed. Right now, they’re three games back. Beyond the Magic sit the Brooklyn Nets, who will once again be without Kyrie Irving for the foreseeable future. The Nets aren’t quite as the Magic, and the Wizards trail them by five games. But even that’s not unreachable. The Wizards still have 29 games left to play.
Kyrie Irving has re-aggravated his injured right shoulder that cost him 26 games and is out indefinitely again, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson confirmed today
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 18, 2020
If the Wizards want to pull off this surprise playoff push, coming out of the All-Star break gates strong is a must. Right away, the Wizards will have a great chance to gain some ground on the two teams that sit atop them in the standings.
A Path to the Playoffs
After over a week away from competitive basketball, the Wizards open up the back half of their season with some fairly favorable matchups. First, home game versus the crumbling Cleveland Cavaliers, who just traded for Andre Drummond but also just fired their head coach John Beilein.
Then the Wizards travel to Chicago to face another beatable opponent. After a near-certain L to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Wizards host a HUGE game versus Brooklyn where they can make up ground with a head to head win over the seventh seed. The Wizards then travel west for a tough matchup with the Utah Jazz, although the short-handed Wizards did beat them earlier this season. But with Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings, two teams south of .500, waiting after that, things might not be so bad on the opposite coast.
The Wizards, who went into the All-Star Break playing their best basketball, come back and play five of their first seven games against teams with losing records. And one of them comes against one of their biggest obstacles towards playoff life. For Brooklyn and Orlando, things don’t look as great.
Fading Fast?
The Orlando Magic lost eight of their final eleven games leading into the All-Star break. And they’ll have a tough time getting back on track when they return. Of the seven teams the Magic will open their post-All-Star schedule against – Mavericks, Nets, Hawks, Timberwolves, Spurs, Trail Blazers, and Heat – they only have winning records against two of them this season. Which isn’t too surprising. That list of upcoming foes is formidable.
The Nets, on the other hand, don’t have quite as tough of a road ahead. But they will spend a lot of time literally on the road. The Nets will play six road games in their first seven post-All-Star matchups. Road games are never easy, especially against these upcoming opponents. Before March 3, the Nets have to travel to Philadelphia, Washington, Miami, and Boston. All four teams are considerably better at home. Hell, the 76ers, Celtics, and Heat have some of the best home records in the NBA. And the Nets aren’t exactly a road team. They’re just 9-16 outside of Brooklyn this season.
Without Irving for the foreseeable future, things could be better in Brooklyn. To their credit, though, they’ve managed to go 17-16 in 33 games without Irving this season. But right now, the seventh-seeded Nets are injured. The eighth-seeded Magic are reeling. And the Wizards are surging.
If they win the games they’re “supposed” to, and take down the Nets head to head, then these Wizards could easily open up the final stretch of the season by going 5-2 (or better!) in their first seven games. In the NBA, it’s not how you start, but how you finish. The Wizards – with a playoff birth dangling just out of reach but getting closer with every game – are proof of that.