Postgame: Brian Keefe’s FRUSTRATIONS Revealed in Washington Wizards’ 10th Straight Loss

Postgame: Brian Keefe’s FRUSTRATIONS Revealed in Washington Wizards’ 10th Straight Loss

It happened again everybody. The Washington Wizards have lost 10 games in a row for the third year in a row. Frustration spoils over for a lot of these fans, but tonight it also did for head coach Brian Keefe. You are Locked on Wizards, your daily Washington Wizards podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. DC family, you’re locked on to the Washington Wizards where you’re part of our family. We thank you for making Lockdown on Wizards your first listen every single day. We’re part of the Lockdown podcast network, the number one podcast network in the nation. Alongside the DC sports content creating, Savant Abdullah Yub, I’m Ben Strober. I cover all things DC Sports for 1067 the fan and the team 980. Before we get started today, we are brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fandal.com to get started. Wizards drop it in Houston. 10 losses in a row for this Wizards team. That’s the third year in a row where the Wizards have gone on a double-digit losing streak. Last year, of course, the two 16game losing streaks. They did it as well in the first year of the rebuild. Um, AB, you knew something like this would be possible the way the team was constructed and where the Wizards are as an organization, but it it never feels good to be in this position right here. Yeah, 100%. It doesn’t feel good, Ben. And I’ll say one positive is I did fix my mic, so audio issues shouldn’t be as bad as you guys say in the comments. But unfortunately, we’re reporting today the Wizards lost their 10th game in a row. And Ben, it got ugly in that third quarter or that second quarter when the Wizards were down by 29. And we kind of knew that going into this game. This Houston team band, they are so freaking loaded with Alpin Shenon, Kevin Durant, Thompson, Derek Een, Steven Adams. I mean, rebounding wise, they can rebound the ball, they can shoot the ball, but I mean, the Wizards just a young squad. The talent gap was there. You didn’t want to see, you expected this kind of game how it was going to turn out, but again, you want to see that competitive spirit from the Whiz Kids, but tonight again, it was just, it was frustrating. In the third quarter, I think it was Houston Rockets put a shot three from the corner. I forgot who it was, but he missed it. got his own rebound, put it up, and then Brian Keefe within a minute of the third quarter calls a timeout. So again, for this Wizards squad, 10 losses in a row, you’re hoping that you can have some lessons you can learn from this. But for us Wizards fans or just anyone out there that supports the squad, it’s like at what point do you say what’s the difference between this year and last year? I understand we see some development, but playing as a team, 10 games in a row, it’s just not going to cut it. Absolutely. There’s some positives I want to talk about as we roll through the episode and we’re going to give you guys a chance to let it all out in the third and final segment today as we always do here postgame on Lockdown Wizards. One thing I wanted to touch on the effort overall from this team. I know there’s going to be the es and flows that come with a super young team. You have 12 guys under the age of 24 on this squad. It’s going to be tough to get the consistent effort on an 82game basis. And you brought it up 37 seconds into that second half. Coach Keefe calls a timeout and he absolutely goes off on the team on the bench. Anthony Gil was involved. Uh assistant coach David Vanterpool was involved in that. And we know those conversations were regarded to effort. And I’ll give Keith and the and the team some credit because the effort was better throughout the second half. I feel like Houston was kind of sleepwalking a little bit throughout the entirety of the second half after they put up 81 points in that first half, which is a season high the Wizards have allowed in in the first half. Not the season high they’ve allowed for points in a half period. That was 88 against Charlotte in home in the second half, but a really poor defensive effort in the first half. And I want to get into the team’s effort overall. Why did it have to get to the point where coach Keefe had to lay into them? And and that’s why I feel like that was a focal point of this game for me because they started off kind of fast in this one early on and the wheels fell off the track very very quickly in this thing and you know everybody within the organization tonight was able to acknowledge that that was the main problem. They interviewed him David Vanter talking about the assistant coach of the Wizards at halftime. Megan Mique asked him said what do you guys need to do better defensively? He said it starts with effort. we haven’t had enough effort on that side of the basketball. And it was very evident in the way they were playing. They were getting beat on the back of the baseline. Guys were getting behind them. They were really struggling to rebound the ball. They weren’t boxing out. They were doing almost everything wrong defensively in that first half. And they cleaned things up by quite a big margin in the second half and ended up outscoring Houston in that second half and ended up finishing plus seven in the rebound margin for the second half. Not in the game overall because of how bad the disparity was early on in this one. But it’s just frustrating that, you know, the the guys sometimes are having to be begged to get that effort on a night innight out basis. I’m not sure why it took Keith sending them all on the bench 37 seconds into the half to get them to play with some fire under them cuz they clearly just didn’t have it throughout the first half of this game. Abdullah, the second chance points, Ben, I mean, it was killing Washington. And I understand the struggles of guarding a guy like Kevin Durant. Keshan George was given the assignment. I think they even threw Cam Whitmore. I think it was in the second quarter when the team decided to go into zone defense. They just try to change things up. And going into this game, I was thinking that if Shenun gets the ball, if Durant gets the ball, you have to send a double because again with the small ball line, they’re going to be running out there. And then at one point, you saw Keshan George out there playing center. They just got outmatched physically and defensively not. I mean, Reed Shepard Ben, he had 21 points. I mean, he had like it seemed when I was watching the game, he scored the ball every time he shot it from beyond the arc. He is a sniper and his development has gone really well in Houston. It was just it was a struggle and let’s not forget this Houston Rockets team is going to be a real threat in the West, but also for the Wizards. You’re losing your 10th game in a row. And I think right now it’s just it shatters a lot of these young guys confidence where it’s like last year we had two losing streaks of 16 games in a row. This year our goal was to not have that, not have doubledigit game losing streaks. But it’s just frustrating. I think Keshan George, I was very happy about him almost getting 10 assists, almost a double double. He finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, two steals, one block. Again, guarding a guy like Kevin Durant, it’s not easy. Not many people in the world can do it, but he was going out there very physical to the lane, has a nice layups, and I think Cam Whitmore was also a guy who is just so freaking athletic and so fast. I mean, he just jumps out the roof. There was a play where I think late in the game where Bub Carrington threw an inbound pass to Cam and he almost caught it and it looked like it was going to the roof. it. Again, you there’s some glimpses of hope that you can take throughout the season, Ben, but again, when you look at the final score, 135 112, it’s just a little frustrating. I think you’re muted, Ben. Houston entered this game as one of the best rebounding teams. I think they were number one in rebounding, if I remember correctly, entering this one. So, you knew it was going to be a tough night for a Wizards team that really struggled against the offensive glass. gave up a season high 25 offensive rebounds uh against Detroit the other night and those issues just kind of persisted as it went on tonight. 20 offensive rebounds for Houston overall, but I want to go back in time to the first quarter and where the wheels really fell off the track for this Wizards team. And a big part of the reason why AB, we talk about the defensive effort. The problem with this team is they get into foul trouble super early on in the game. and Keshan George. That’s been a problem for him. But everybody was struggling fouling this Houston team early in the game. Houston had already attempted over 10 free throws in the first eight minutes of the game. Katie ended up going on a nine nothing run by himself. And the Wizards were letting the defense get behind them consistently under the rim. So by the time you get to the end of the first quarter, you’ve allowed 40 points. Houston’s gotten to the line for 14 attempts and you’re being outrebounded 19 to five. So essentially and a nine offensive rebound uh difference as well for Houston at that point. you’ve already taken yourself out of the game early on with that and the wheels just fall off the track from there because you’re kind of unable to make any adjustments to that point because Houston just so much more physical. They impose themselves. They’re great moving the basketball. We just got lost so many different times. Defensively didn’t have anybody that could really match up one-on-one with a lot of these guys. The drive and kick game was killing Washington. The one thing I do want to bring up was um kind of a perfect embodiment of what Wizards basketball has been like in terms of effort this year was at the beginning of the second quarter. Whitmore was in the game and he gets a steal and lays it in in transition and you think, okay, like good to see Whitmore get something done on the defensive end. Nice bucket to go in transition and within two seconds they’re already beat down the floor. Uh outlet pass on the wing, three-pointer for Houston. Nobody gets back and they’re just wide open. Like things like that cannot happen when you’re this Washington team that’s trying to compete night in night out. I was pleased with the way they competed the other night against Detroit. And in the second half of this game, I thought they looked a little bit better. The effort at least picked up after Kee called that timeout and frustration so early on in the second half. But it’s frustrating that it gets to the point where Kee really has to, you know, make it that imperent. Like maybe Keefe had to do it early on in the game. Maybe it’s something motivationwise before the game starts. I don’t know what it takes to get a full four quarters of effort from these guys because we just haven’t quite seen it consistently. When you do see it, the team looks good. They’re fun to watch. That’s not as frustrating. Like tonight was just a game where once it hit halftime, it it became a little bit more of a chore to watch because of what was going on. There’s some other good things that we’ll talk about as well as we go throughout the program here at AB, but it’s just tough to see the team take itself out of it so early. And I think Ben, they were fighting back that third quarter. They brought it back to, if I’m not mistaken, 13 or 10. So, it was almost Go ahead. Was that wrong? You’re good. You’re good. Okay. Yeah. I I was saying to myself like they can find a way to claw themselves back in, but again, this Houston Rockets team, the talent gap, like I mentioned, they just know how to play offensive basketball. Defensively, they’re just very tenacious. And I think it is a a huge learning curve for this Wizard squad because ultimately this Houston team not too long ago was also winning a was were losing a lot of games and they found a way to draft really well and nice free agency signings. There’s a big reason why Kevin Durant came to this Houston squad because he wanted to go to a team where they could win. And again, Alfred Shenun, Ben, you and I mentioned, I mean, he is the closest to Kolk right now. And Alexar tonight, I know we’re going to get into him, but he had 25 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, but there were times where Shangon was definitely taking him to school, but that’s that’s going to happen. And Alexar, that’s definitely a learning curve for him. But just overall in general, Ben, giving up 135 points, I mean, defensively, this whole off seasonason, the discussion of playing defense, I I I just don’t know what where do you point the finger to when it comes to the blame because is it the scheme? Is it effort combination of second chance points defensively right now, Washington? I don’t know. I want to look at the stats, Ben, because how does within these 10 first 10 games this Wizards team stack against the previous years of this Wizard squad defensively? Because how many points per game were they giving last year and the year before? because right now they’re a dead last in giving point up points per game. Yeah, they’re not any better defensively. It’s not a secret and I think it was it was pretty intentional by the way the team was constructed. They weren’t going to be very good defensively. I know they preached it throughout the entirety of the offseason. That was is what was sold to us. But I think we were kind of sold false dreams right there. And I understand like they want to preach that as an organization to say like that’s where they want to be eventually. Uh but you know with Bal out especially when really only two of your players on the roster are are competitive night in night out defensively. I just don’t know how you’re going to compete with an offense like Houston on a night in nightight out basis. This Wizards team was built to lose enough games to keep its draft pick. Uh and now you know they’ve done a good job at at at that goal so far. They’ve lost 10 games in a row. Obviously they’re one and 11 on the season. I start to wonder at this point, maybe you see it like last year where you kind of stack up a lot of these losses early on in the season, maybe in the last quarter of the season there, if they only have maybe even under double digit wins at that point, you start to see them make a slight run, try to compete a little bit more because the the the wins at that point probably won’t hurt them from losing their draft pick. But still, it’s tough to see the team get into this position here, AB. Like I I make the argument that you can lose a lot of these games with without it being so non-competitive at times. That’s the biggest thing for me. The end of that first half was really really hard to watch for this Wizards team. Guys weren’t boxing out. They’re getting out hustled. Uh the Rockets closed the half on a 20 to6 run. It it’s just tough to watch at times and I understand where the frustrations come from within the fan base within Keefe. But at the end of the day, I, you know, I put some of the onus here on Bryant Keefe. I think he’s got to be better in terms of making some of these adjustments early on in the first half to avoid this game getting away and avoid the effort from falling the way it did. Why did it take until the second half of this game for the team to pick up its effort? I wonder. Also, again, I know it wasn’t going to be a big deal if he played a lot of minutes, but Justin Champion only getting three minutes. Ben, we always talk about how he symbolizes winning basketball. I don’t I don’t understand why he’s only playing three minutes. But again, you lose by 23 points, so I don’t know if it makes a big difference. All right, let’s take a quick break. When we come back, we continue to break down what we saw tonight. We’ll get into some of the positives we saw Keshan George and Alex Sar specifically and a couple other things before we let it all out for you guys in the third segment. We’ll be back. The holiday season is right around the corner and that means it’s time to get your home ready. Whether you need more seating for guests, cozy new lines, or fun serveware for a holiday hosting, Wayfair’s Black Friday sale is here to make your space shine. And the best part, you don’t have to wait. Wayfair’s Black Friday deals are happening all month long with up to 70% off everything from sofas to spatulas. Have you? 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And right now you have a good chance of breaking the streak because you have Brooklyn coming up because they’ve been struggling as well. But again, Ben, it’s just a night where you lose by 23. It’s it is frustrating. There were some bright spots that we’ll get into. Trey Johnson back in the state of Texas. He had 12 points. I love Ben on transition where he go when he’s on the wing, one dribble, sideep, or step back three. Those are money. But again, in this type of effort, it’s just losses. I mean, the stats are just considered empty stats when you’re losing by that many points. And for Alex Sar, I think the streak is over. So, he only had one block, at least from what I see, only one block tonight to the streak of getting two blocks through was it 10 games in a row, Ben, if I’m not wrong. It was 10. Yeah, it’s uh again, like Alexar still, one thing I love about Alexar, man, I don’t know if I mentioned it, but he’s always trying to he doesn’t care about getting dunked on, and that’s one thing I also saw with Victor Wbeyama. He’ll always try to defend the rim. and a lot of NBA players today. I think it’s being a young guy where you just don’t care about being on a highlight reel. So, that’s one thing that I would take away from Alex Sar’s game, at least from what I’ve seen this season. I didn’t see much of it last season where you get dunked on by Stephen Adams, but at least you’re going out there and trying to swap the ball. Yeah, I’d agree with you 100% on that. I like the ability he shows to to get up and get back into the game despite, you know, a rough play for him defensively because he’s had his fair share of those as the season’s gone along here now, 12 games into it or yeah, 12 games into it, now lost 10 games in a row. Uh, I want to kind of get sidetracked here a little bit because I actually wanted to bring this point up because I was taking notes throughout the entire game as I always do. And, uh, full disclosure, second half of the game, I wasn’t taking a whole lot of notes because it had gotten that bad. So that’s to tell you how bad this game had gotten by halftime. I was just kind of watching it to see what was even going to happen the rest of the way. Wasn’t detailing too much. One thing I take away from watching the monumental broadcast is Drew Gooden is seeing so many of the inefficiencies of this Wizards team and the issues that are lying within the effort. Yet I don’t know why we’re not seeing the adjustment come from our coaching staff. At one point I saw Drew Gooden or I sorry I heard him. He says they’re playing way too much isolation basketball. See the way they’re running this offensive set. You’re not going to generate a good offensive look the way they’re setting it up right here. And then another thing that comes from defensive effort, he said they’re running any set they want from the first pass. He was talking about Houston getting that first pass off every time to get into their offensive sets. And he showed multiple examples of it on the replay where the Wizards do not deny the basketball on that first pass. in Houston once they’re able to get into the flow offensively and start to, you know, kind of simulate the way they want to run their offense. A lot of drive and kick stuff, a lot of back door cutting, the Wizards had no answer for it. So, the fact that Drew Gooden, the analyst for our team, is pointing it out on the broadcast, but we’re not seeing any of these adjustments being made is frustrating to me. Yeah, I agree. I I just anytime I hear you were going to talk, it’s majority of the time talking about rebounding and trying to box out and giving better effort and tonight it just wasn’t the case for the Whiz kids. And I’m just hoping, Ben, that this isn’t a Constantine throughout the season because I was talking to one of my buddies and he’s saying, man, 20 wins is looking like a stretcher now. I’ll be surprised if they barely crack 15. I will say though, Ben, this these 10 games has been a rough schedule because again without the Keshan George master class in Dallas and you play Dallas again, right now you probably be looking winless to start the season and you’re hoping that eventually you play some teams that just aren’t going to be threats in the conference. But again, you want to play teams, you want to be the underdog because these are the teams you’re going to be playing against when you’re going to be competing. So I just I I don’t know like right now if you’re Brian Kee Ben, what do you tell these players? You’re one and 10 going into the season. You preached the idea of being competitive and playing defense, closing out, and that just it hasn’t been the case. I’d say you guys got to be better as a team. We all have to be better collectively, the coaching staff. We have to be better. Everybody’s accountable for what’s happening right now. And I know there’s, you know, a lot of people out there will put more blame on some of the players or some of the coaches on the other, but this is a collective thing. When the effort isn’t there from one guy, the effort’s not going to be there from everybody. Night in night out, these guys have to take a deep look with the themselves in the mirror. You’ve lost 10 games in a row. Find a way. How are we going to get better? How are we going to find a way to compete? Are we going to sacrifice the way we play offensively tonight so we can compete more on the defensive end? Maybe that’s the thing that’ll have to happen at some point because you’re never going to win a basketball game giving up 80 points and a half. You’re never even going to be close to winning a game. 81. But think the Rockets were in our position a couple years back. So, they’ve had like a what, a two or three year head start in terms of building this whole thing up through the draft and acquiring some more talent to supplement that. They looked like the varsity team. Like, if you’re looking at rebuilding teams, Houston’s already they’re past the varsity. They’re at the college level basically at this point because they’re actually a contender in the Western Conference this year. The Wizards are on the JV level compared to them. That’s kind of what it looked like in the first half of this game in terms of rebounding, physicality, effort, offensive production, defensive production. The Wizards just had no answer for anything uh the Rockets did tonight. Yeah. And they’re going to be really good this year. I think they’re going to win 55 plus games. I mean, their ability to just move the ball, the high post game, having Kevin Durant as an isolation score, it just does wonders for your offense. And we’re hoping that the Wizards can when they when this young squad starts being competitive, they’ll attract superstar talents like Kevin Durant or similar to Kevin Durant in the future, but that’s probably two to three years from now. Yeah. Real quick, the positives. Alexard, 25 points, 11 rebounds, four assists. He did on 10 of 15 from the field. Keshan George had some issues with fouls in this one as he typically does early on, but he did finish with 16 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, two steals, and a block, so three stops for Keshan on seven of 17 shooting. Saw Trey Johnson flash a little bit. Cam Whitmore had a couple moments in this one on five of nine shooting, but uh didn’t see Whitmore play a ton outside of the, you know, he got 25 minutes, which I guess was a a marginally high number for this Wizards team. But a lot of this game, they were just chasing it from way behind in the second half. So, it’s tough to even really look at the individual performances when you’re trailing by that much in the game. Yeah, I’m happy that I’m hoping that we see those nights where he doesn’t get those five minutes a game like we saw against Cleveland. But these past three games, he’s gotten that 20 plus minute mark. And maybe he’s the guy that just comes off the bench and is the microwave score. And that’s his role. And that’s all we wanted when he came here to DC, Ben, is carving out a role here in Washington because I know a lot of people writing him off too soon. And I just think that was ridiculous. Yeah. All right, let’s take one more break. We’re going to read your comments. Let it all out. When we come back, the Wizards have lost 10 straight. Nobody likes paying rent, but if you must, you might as well get something for it. That’s where Built comes in. 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One of the biggest problems lacks lazy passing, bad hands on catches. There were at times, Ben, and this is a constant thing, or not a constant thing, but as of recently, what I’ve seen with Alex is that his hands do get a little soft when it comes to those pick and roll passes. So, we’re hoping that as a young guy, he’ll definitely learn from that. But again, the lazy passes, Bub Carrington, we saw that with games where he had like four to five turnovers. And maybe that’s due to the fact that the defense that the opposing team is running is just very suffocating. That’s the effort that we want to see from this Wizards team defensively. But again, I definitely see with some of those passes where it’s just like easy turnover. And again, that turnover leads to points for the opposing team. Uh Mr. Two Keys, I gave up lol. Tonight was the first game. I didn’t watch all season. And honestly, Ben, as a Wizards fan, I would tell you that second quarter, you see 81 points given up. It’s hard to to keep on watching that third and fourth quarter, even though they did make it a game in the third. being down by that many points and giving up 81 in the first half. And what’s crazy is that’s not the most you give it in a half because you give up 88 in the second half against Charlotte. Again, this whole offseason they preached about being competitive and playing better defense and it just really hasn’t been the case. So, they’re hoping to figure out and fix it up soon. Juice Man, sorry, last one and I’ll let you go. Ben Sar and George are the truth. I mean, that’s what we’ve been saying. Keshan George is so tough. One of the I think he’s going to be a really good two-way player in this league. and Alex R. I mean, for all the haters and the doubters, they’re really quiet right now. He is going to be a really good center in this league. Top five, top seven soon. I said it, people thought I was crazy. Let’s see how it turns out. Uh, you know, just to piggyback on some of the points that guys have made here. Yeah, this is tough. At the end of the day, we know this is like part of the plan for this Wizards organization to be bad enough to keep your first round pick. Hopefully, you’re gonna find get a Debba, Boozer, or Peterson in this draft, and that’s going to elevate you to the next level, but losing 10 games in a row. Uh, you know, it’s not a secret to say that this sucks. Sucks ass. It It’s really not fun. Like, and we can’t sugar coat it. It’s difficult. I don’t need to tell you that because the players feel that way. The coaching staff feels that way. Nobody likes this. Nobody likes to lose 10 games in a row. That’s just the bottom line. There’s going to be frustration. We saw that from Brian Keefe tonight. They have to find a way to channel that energy into playing better, to putting in better effort at the end of the day. Yeah. Like I’ve had some of my issues with Brian Keefe and the coaching staff so far this year, but the players also got to play better. Like guys need to put in the effort on a night innight out basis. Everybody has to be better. Accountability goes around to everybody when you’re on a 10-ame losing streak. It’s not just on one person, not just on one coach. Everybody’s got to be better. I’m hoping it gets more competitive as we go along here. Yeah, what I appreciate whatever you just said, Ben, because again, it’s if it’s like this throughout the season, I mean, it’s going to be very ugly and then you don’t want to lose the locker room, especially with a young squad. Wizards need a Ricky Rubio like guy. Hey, I mean, it would be nice to have a point guard on this team. Darren Peterson in the future maybe. Who knows? Who knows? Locked on Law. Thank you. Our one and only on pace for nine wins. Yeah, that is that is that is rough. I think Ben, the worst record in NBA history was the Charlotte Bobcats, right? They they won seven games, right? Wasn’t it a shortened season though? Okay. Yeah, I think it was a shortened season, but still seven games. I think we can I think we can we’ll definitely We’ll crack seven. No, no doubt. Right. No, no doubt. No doubt. Whiz Kid forever. Thank you, Ben. The players have to be more accountable for their actions. BK not going to get on the floor and hold anyone’s hand again. Yeah. And we understand this is a young squad, but when you’re that young, you got to provide some source of energy and trying to go out there and just be competitive. Again, like we understand we weren’t going to go 82 and0. We we knew we weren’t going to win 50 or 40 games this season, but being competitive in every single game is honestly what matters because that’s what you’re hoping for when this team becomes competitive down the road. I’m trying to pick one without any profanity, Ben, or Yeah, there’s a lot there’s a lot of inappropriate comments, aren’t there? There’s a there’s a there’s a good amount if we lose. I mean, right now the Nets the Nets have one win too, right, Ben? They do and so does Indiana. Wow. I mean, so like look at that. We’re not we we’ve won one game and we’ve lost 10 games in a row yet here we are. We’re we’re not even like separating oursel from being the worst. Just crazy. That’s the tank. I think they’re going to be calling it a tank ball this Nets game. I mean, if if the result is like this tonight against Brooklyn, Ben, it’s going to be hard making a postgame reaction to that. You got to find a way to be competitive against that Net squad. I’ll I’ll tell you right now, I I don’t know what would happen if that were the case. But I think Brooklyn is so bad in terms of talent. I don’t know if it could possibly be that bad. Even if the Wizards absolutely did not try, like, you know, if it was the same effort it was tonight, it still would be relatively This Houston team is talented. That’s why I’m trying to make the point if you’re going to play a top tier team in the Western Conference like Houston, you can’t be soft. You can’t play with that type of effort. You can’t go out there, not rebound, not play defense. Brooklyn is a really bad basketball team, but we’re a bad basketball team right now. So, I can’t even I can’t say too much. They can’t say they can’t say much. And I know some Nets fans are saying they’ve they think they’ve missed on all five first round picks. And I think, if I’m not mistaken, Cam Thomas just went out with an injury, right, Ben? Or am I wrong? I I don’t know. I’d have to double check. I have to check. Well, whatever. I think right now Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. are the leading scorers and they play an interesting brand of basketball that if you somehow get blown out the door by 20 points at home, it’s I mean it doesn’t get worse than that in my opinion. Mar Yeah, again Karina I I understand your frustration and the whole $20 a month. I think this season again it was all about we knew that it was all about the youth movement and I think there has to be some turning point soon and and I’m not trying to say they’re going to win a lot of games but I think in the fourth quarter there has to like I think there will be more games actually I don’t even want to want to say that I think we’re hoping to see more games at the Detroit game meaning you’ll be competitive when it counts obviously didn’t win the game but it’s just we’re going to keep throwing that C word out there because at that point what what what else could we throw out there And at this point, it’s all we’re asking for. Sometimes we have to beg for it. I don’t want to beg for it. I don’t think anybody wants to have to beg for it, but uh here we are on certain nights like that. You just got to hope at some point it gets better. And you know, you got to stick through it. This is where you’re like in the deepest of mud in this rebuild right here. Are you going to be able to get out of this eventually? And if you’re a fan, it’s so frustrating. I completely understand not wanting to be a part of it, not wanting to watch it. And if you make that decision, then so be it. Like it’s a it’s a bad product right now. You can’t even disagree with that. This is going to have to be one of those things where if you stick through it all the way till the end of this thing and eventually hopefully this team is competing uh you know down the road here, hopefully within the next two years, maybe even next year they take that next step. You just never know at this point. It’s going to feel real good if you’re a fan uh to say that you survive through these times. And it’s going to feel good for the players if they get through these times. The same way Houston did it, the same way Detroit did it. Oklahoma City. OKC. There’s a blueprint for this kind of thing. Are the Wizards going to get to that next step? We sure hope so. They’re showing some strides and some things that, you know, would indicate that they might get there at some point soon, but, you know, maybe a little bit even slower than than usual at this point just because some non-competitive basketball the past couple weeks. Yeah. And I think right now it’s so easy to just give up on the squad, which makes sense. I understand they’re not winning a lot of games or any games at the moment, but I think losing right now is going to just to make down the line when we look back and say, man, you have this foundation, you have this young core, I think it was worth the wait. It was a lot of years of being patient because again, before Will Dawkins, it was just five years like you said. I remember you I heard you say Ben where it was just the previous regime just throwing players out there and seeing if we can make the play in or get the AC seed and somewhat make it out the first round. But this time it’s no shortcuts and we just got to be patient day by day. And it’s and shout out to you guys watching this Wizard squad game one through 82 all four quarters. It’s tough being a Wizards fan right now because again the product on the field is just not matching what our expectations are. But at the end of the day we just got to be patient. That’s it’s competitiveness and patience. Those are the two key words. As I got as they say, Abdullah, you got to see through it, my boy or girls, if you’re watching, of course, we want to thank all you guys for making lockdown Wizards your first listen today and every single day. The Wizards have lost 10 games in a row. It’s frustrating and tough, but we appreciate all of you, the everydayers, that much more. We appreciate you sticking with us a part of this Wizards coverage because you guys might stop watching the team. We won’t. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to stick with you. No, we’re watching every second of it. All 82 games all year round, 5 days a week. That’s what we do here on the Locked On podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in the nation. Keep it locked on. Locked on Wizards will be back for an episode on Friday. Danny Ruer from the Grant and Danny Show. He will join the program. We’ll record that tomorrow. It’ll be out on Friday morning. So, we hope you guys will be able to enjoy that one. But for now, that’s my co-host Abdullle Yub. I’m Ben Strober. We sign off DC family.

The Washington Wizards lost their 10th-straight game on Wednesday, falling to the Houston Rockets. The effort was poor early on, which prompted frustrations from Wizards HC Brian Keefe to begin the second half. The effort was better in the second half. Hear Ben Strober and Abdullah Ayubi break it all down.

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