Postgame: Washington Wizards STRUGGLE to Adjust Defensively, Blown Out by Indiana Pacers

Postgame: Washington Wizards STRUGGLE to Adjust Defensively, Blown Out by Indiana Pacers

Fresh off their first win in over a month’s time, the Washington Wizards got a very humble reminder of why it took them so long to get that one win. They are blown out by the Indiana Pacers tonight. [Music] You are Locked On Wizards, your daily Washington Wizards podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. DC family, you are locked on to the Washington Wizards where you’re part of our family. We thank you for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. We’re part of the Locked On podcast network the number one sports podcast network. Today’s episode is 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 fanduel.com to get started alongside a DC sports content creator Savannah Abdullah Yububi. I’m Ben Strober and I cover the Wizards for Roundt IO. 119 to 86 the Wizards drop it to the two wins now 3-in Indiana Pacers. A battle of the bottom if you will. Could be big implications in terms of what happens in the lottery down the road if you want to look at it from a glass half full perspective. But tonight, AB, a big reminder of why this team lost 14 games in a row prior to winning on Tuesday. Yeah, and I recently, it was recently my birthday and I was hoping that the Wizards winning two games in a row would be a nice birthday present. But again, I realized why there’s a big gap from this Wizards team and this Pacers team. Even though the wins were there, the record-wise, there was a similarity. I just think Ben, the Pacers, the injuries that they’re being dealt with, they’re a much better team on paper and they should not have two wins up until tonight. And I’m hoping that down the line this this loss with the Pacers. You play them more in and later on the season, maybe this will be implications of draft selection. But we’ll just have to see. But overall tonight, Ben, it’s just you lose by a combined what if from doing the math 30? No, 14 30 plus points. No, 33 points. 33 points. I can’t even do math right now, but just frustrating. Alexar, however, had a nice game, but outside of that, Ben just I thought there would be a lot more competitiveness, but again, just this is the the Wizards that we saw before they beat the the who they just beat. Oh my god, I forgot that Atlanta. Atlanta. Yeah, just it’s just Yeah, it just sucks. So, I want to point out one thing first. I want to talk a lot about the defense because they really just failed to adjust throughout the entirety of this game. Drew Good and pointed out some things that I agreed with. I’ll bring that up in a little bit. We’ll give you a chance at the end of the episode to let it all out as well. Uh, by the way, happy Thanksgiving uh to everyone, all of our listeners. We hope you guys enjoyed the holiday. Um, but let’s get into it. Offensively, they put up a season low 86 points tonight. Alex Sar had 24 of those. Uh, so pretty much the bulk of Washington’s offensive production came from him. The only other game this year where the Wizards scored under a hundred uh was in a loss. I had it up in my note here was in the loss to the Orlando Magic back on November 1st. So, offensively, obviously, we know that had not been the issue uh for this Wizards team throughout the majority of the season so far. They’ve just been pretty downright atrocious defensively. Worst net uh rating in the NBA, worst defensive rating in the NBA. Uh tonight, just really poor offensively. Another 17 turnovers, missed seven free throws in the game, which continues to be an issue for this team. Uh, and all across the board really outside of Alex Sar, nobody was very impressive to me at all offensively. Marvin Baggley was not on the injury report for this game, but he did not see the floor. He did not play a single minute. So, I’m not going to make any assumptions. I I’m sure Keith will get asked about in the press conference, so we’ll get an answer. But maybe there’s some, you know, injury that was lingering part of the, you know, what kept him out. Maybe he felt something flare up a little bit right before the game because I’m not really sure why he wouldn’t play in this game. And they went to Vukovich twice in the situation, but they just really had nothing going offensively in this one and the worst performance of the season by far and the numbers would indicate it as well. And unfortunately no Cory Kisser as well, Ben, who was on a heater these past two games and he’s a guy that again can give you those three-pointers and has been more aggressive as of recently. Defensively, Ben Pascal Seakum had 24 points, 11 rebounds, one assist, one assist. I mean, he was getting the ball and just going with his left hand and finishing in the paint. So, there was no resistance there. Ben and Benedict Mattherin, a really nice young piece on their squad, 20 points. Garrison Matthews had nine points. This Pacers team overall, when Tyresese Halleurn comes back, I do expect him to make a a run in the East. But again, Ben, this is a a team that had the same amount of wins as you, getting blown out by 30 plus points and Alex Hart being the only guy that’s willing to go out there and score. It’s just it’s a little frustrating. It really is. Yeah. Coming off their best effort of the year where they looked great, especially defensively, they rotated well. Uh they were getting hands in the passing lane. Today, they pretty much sleptwalked through the majority of this game. And not to say it wasn’t super unexpected in a way because you mentioned the other night you do win the game against Atlanta, you dominate it, but the anomaly in that sense is that you shoot 50% from three and they played much better defense than they had really for the majority of the season today. One thing that bothered me a lot because Drew Gooden on the Monumental Sports broadcast, big shout out to Gooden, he pointed this out probably five separate times in the broadcast and I’ve heard him point this out in a bunch of different games as well. And tonight he really uh emphasized it because of what Pascal Seakum was getting offensively. He said on numerous occasions that the Wizards biggest problem defensively is that they make it far too easy for teams to initiate their offense. And Good often often references Washington allowing the opponent to catch the pass without much pressure. And to begin that third quarter, uh Gooden pointed out endless times that they needed to deny Seakum from catching the ball at the top of the key. you need to deny him from even getting the basketball. They didn’t do that whatsoever. They didn’t make a single adjustment when it came to denying Pascal Seakum the ball cuz every time he got it, he completely overmatched to whoever he had on him. And I tweeted out earlier as well, I said it’s rare that you see Justin Champeni look overmatched on the basketball floor from a defensive standpoint. He had nothing tonight against Pascal Seakum. got whatever he wanted and the Wizards just ultimately failed to adjust to it all night and they let the game get away as a result and the second half was just disastrous especially on the defensive side. points in the paint, Ben. Indiana had 58 to Washington’s 38. And maybe if you play Marvin Baggley a little bit, that makes a difference. But again, Ken Whitmore only getting 16 minutes, still not enough. TV, I mean, I know people are still going to complain about him, but he’s a young guy. You’re hoping that he learns from these experiences. Bub Carrington only six points, seven rebounds, three assists. Still waiting for that that breakout game for Bub Ben. Do you think that’s going to happen anytime soon or hopefully before the trade deadline? He knocked down two threes in a row at one point and I was like, “Okay, like a Yeah, maybe we’re starting to get it going.” But ended up finishing a minus 23 in this game, two for eight. So, he did not score after that. Uh missed every other shot he took. So, another tough night. Uh I thought it was a tough night for Bal defensively as well. Was not his best effort on the defensive side where usually he’s been pretty good. Um he was a little more assertive on the offensive side taking nine shots as opposed to six in the five contests that he’s been back since coming back from the calf injury. But I don’t know, it was one of those games where you could just tell throughout the first half uh that they did not have it tonight. And I think Verun Shunker put it very astutely in one of his tweets. I’m talking about the Washington Post reporter by the way. Um he said the score might not indicate it talking about the first half of the game because the Wizards only trailed by 13 I think it was at half. I’ I’d have to double check again, but he said the score doesn’t indicate it, but this looks like one of the worst games this team has played. And 100% I agree. And now the numbers obviously reflect that because you lost by 33 points to a team with two wins. And you put up a season low offensively. You almost gave up 120 points again to a team that has not been very good. Quite frank is is missing so much of his offensive talent right now with Halbert not playing, Opie Toppen uh not playing. You have so many guys on the mend for that team comparative to you who are now dismissing Kissird and Trey Johnson, which is a big reason why they struggled offensively in this game. But the fact that they made no adjustments whatsoever defensively, especially from the second quarter on in this game uh made it really frustrating uh to watch tonight. I was surprised, Ben. I mean, Jir Watkins was a guy that you threw in there against Cleveland when you wanted someone to guard Donovan Mitchell. I’m surprised they didn’t even give him any minutes tonight. You saw that the whole squad was struggling to guard Pascal Siakum. Throw in the rookie there. I just if why not play him? I mean, just give him a minute. Yeah, it seems like a situation where like I don’t know why he doesn’t get in the game. I don’t know why Marvin Baggley doesn’t get in the game as I mentioned before, but I’ll I’ll monitor uh as we continue throughout the program here for another 20 minutes or so to see if we get an answer on why Bagley didn’t play in this game. But no, like it’s just really the lack of adjustments that have got me especially recently with this Wizards team because at one point in the game it was 11 nothing or not 11 nothing sorry 11 to7 after an 8- nothing Pacers run and then 1411 and out of the timeout the Wizards went on a 7 nothing run that forced a timeout. So I was like, “Okay, we saw some adjustments in the first quarter from Keith and the Wizards actually did a pretty good job out of that timeout uh to put themselves in a position to get back in it.” And then in the second quarter on through the rest of the game, there’s just no, you know, it’s just a reluctancy to adjust on the defensive side. If Drew Gooden, if your team’s broadcast or your analyst is seeing this, why is the head coach not seeing it? Why are they not making the adjustment and denying Pascal Seakum the ball? It just seems like malpractice after a while because he was getting literally everything he won. Garrison Matthews uh started to cook up. A familiar face, DC legend at this point. He starts to cook up as well. Uh they they let Huff get his as well. They were struggling to rebound the basketball tonight. The effort just wasn’t there. Bottom line, the Wizards did not put up a good enough effort tonight. Yeah. And again, Ben, this is a game where you thought it would be close at least because this g this team had the same amount of wins as you and it just come and this is the game that I was like you you win all you win a game, you dominate Atlanta and you win your first NBA Cup game. How do you play in the game where you just won off? Are you still hung over after that win that you’ve had in a while? Just offensively, I mean, Keshan couldn’t get anything going tonight. Only five points just overall outside of Alex Sar who had four stocks. So, shout out to Alex. I mean, he man, we people are not I mean, people are starting to recognize him, but what a sophomore year he’s been having. I mean, the struggles that he had in this first half of his freshman year compared to the second half and how well he’s been playing this year, just I think we really have a really talented center here in DC. You segueed us perfect uh perfectly. AB, let’s talk about Alex Sar, who was really the only bright spot for the Wizards tonight. We’ll do that when we come back. The NBA season is heating up and Door Dash has found the perfect way to keep fans in their bag all season long. Whether you’re watching for the highlights, your fantasy team, or just your favorite player, Door Dash makes every game night that much better. Door Dash is the official on demand delivery platform of the NBA. And they’re celebrating with something called the Bagdrop. Every time an NBA player scores 50 points in a game, Door Dash drops 50% off your order with Dash Pass the next day. And you’re automatically entered for a chance to win the ultimate fan bag. 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And I I don’t like to make these assumptions or accuse anyone of anything because I understand these are NBA athletes. um I have no right to talk about their profession or what they’re trying to accomplish, but it almost felt like no one was trying today. And I I’m sure that’s not the case. Like these guys go out there and they do try. They’re going to give their effort uh in one way or another every single night, but the effort wasn’t enough is the point I will try to make throughout this game. Alex Sar was really the only one that was doing anything for them offensively. Mcome had nine points early on in the game and then just didn’t do anything from there. So he came back down to earth after his 46-point explosion where he had 10 threes. Sar finishes with 24, nine rebounds and assists, two steals, and two blocks as you mentioned. Uh eight of 19 from the field, got one of his threes to go in four attempts. Did miss five free throws and that’s something I actually want to talk about with Alex Sar because his numbers have dipped a couple of percentage points from the free throw line. That’s been a little bit of an issue for him. He’s at around 63% on the season. And for a guy at his size that has proven to look a lot more aggressive in terms of his offensive approach this year. I think he’s got to get a lot better at the free throw line. I expect him to get better. I think it’s something with reps and with a lot of work put in in the summer. I think we’ll see him generate that skill a little bit better. It’s interesting though because for a big, he’s pretty skilled at letting it go from behind the arc, obviously, as we know and we’ve seen this season, but the free throw line’s been an issue for the guy. And I’m not trying to knock down his performance tonight because I think it was another very solid performance uh for the second year big, but just something to note that he’s going to have to be better at as his career rolls along. I think the silver lining though with that, Ben, is that at least he’s getting to the free throw line. That’s an aggressive Alexar right there. I think the free throws, you can work on that. Just the mechanics, whatever in the offseason. But the fact that he’s getting there, this is an Alexar in year one where we just take, we saw him take a lot of shots behind the arc and we’re like, you have to go inside. You’re the biggest guy on the court. In NBA media day, he talked about how the shot diet, it needs to get better and it will get better and he’s been doing it doing that this season. So, the fact that it’s the free throws that we’re concerned about him not making it, I think he’ll he’ll figure it out. He’s just fine. He’s only in year two. Now tonight, Ben, on a night like this where Alex Sar is feasting, I think I again like maybe if I always think about the fact that if this team had a pure point guard, Ben, how would how much of these young guys would thrive off of it like a Alexar, like a Bal Kouli, maybe even Bub potentially. I mean, last season we saw Jordan P running the point. Bub Carrington was really good in that combo role. And I just I don’t know. And maybe we’re going to go this whole season without a pure point guard. I saw, we’ll talk about this in another future episode, but Bleacher Report put out a mock trade of us training for LaMelo Ball and it was like a huge package and John Moran supposedly is on the move. I don’t think any of those moves are going to happen, but again, maybe there’s a guy in the draft like a Darren Pearson, like a Muel Brown that could solve that problems right now, but again, going into this offseason, Ben, they need to find a way to get a pure point guard because I think it’s holding back a lot of these young guys. Yeah, they they really look stagnant still in just anemic offensively tonight. Shot 21% from behind the arc. So, it’s funny because some nights in the NBA you’re going to shoot 50% from three as a team. And yes, those are anomalies. That’s not going to happen very often, especially uh for the Wizards than the way they’re currently constructed right now. Tonight was more of a reflection what’s probably more likely. I think 21% is obviously very very poor because the Wizards actually came into the game as one of the better three-point shooting teams percentage-wise uh in the NBA, but today a major major drop off in that department. And a lot of that you can allude to the lack of point guard on the roster, which makes it more difficult for guys to get uh good generated looks offensively. And yeah, today you missed Trey Johnson of course will be out for a couple weeks. Cory Kisspert probably going to be out for a couple of weeks after uh you know, he got a fracture on his right thumb. They showed him on the bench multiple times, had the wrap up on over it. Uh those guys benefit from having a pure point option on the team, but their offense looked a lot worse with those guys not available tonight. And Cory Kisspert on our channel especially like we’ve just really not known what the future would hold for the guy. We thought he could be a candidate to get traded over the summer at one point. Wasn’t sure what the future would look like for him. I think he’s still a guy that might end up getting traded at the deadline to a team that’s looking for a shooter off the bench. Uh, but got to give Cory Kisper his flowers because he’s been very good for the Wizards offensively off the bench this year and tonight they looked a lot worse without him out there. I’ll tell you that. Yeah. And I never thought I’d say that at least up until this point where it’s like on a night where you Cory Kisser played maybe this game would have been closer. But yeah, also Ben, will Riley only getting 10 minutes on a in a game where you the pace was led by like 30 points at multiple times? I don’t see why he’s not playing out there. We saw what he did in the G-League. He is a guy who was also taken in the first round. See what you have out there. And I think I’ve saw some people complain. So CJ McComem took 13 shots. I wanted to ask you, Ben, Middleton took he took 10. When it comes to like the vets on this roster, is there do you see or in your eyes should there be constraint when it comes to the amount of shots they take or at this point it’s just like take as many as they can so we’ll have explosive games like 46 with CJ McCullum and his trade value will go up? I mean, I don’t think you can like restrict a guy to like what number of shots he’s allowed to take. I think if you don’t want a guy to shoot as many shots, then he just has to play less minutes. I think that’s the bottom line within this situation because CJ McComem and Chris Middleton are bonafide veteran players. They’ve had very very successful careers. Uh they they know how to play offense in this league and they have full confidence in themselves that they still play at a extremely high level. And hell, CJ McComem just put up 46 points on 10 threes. like he’s going to go out there and when he feels like he has an opportunity to go score, uh he’s not going to pass up those opportunities because he’s like, “Oh, I’m the veteran player here. Like, I got to defer. I should pass the ball to a younger guy.” Like, I don’t think these guys think like that. I think at the end of the day, like they do think like they are there to serve in that mentorship role. But, you know, when push comes to shove and you’re on the floor and and you got the basketball in your hands, like I don’t think they’re really necessarily thinking about it from that standpoint. So, if this organization, this team doesn’t want CJ McComem and Chris Middleton to shoot as many shots because they feel like they’re taking them from guys who’d be benefiting them younger guys, if you will, then they have to play less. And I’ve been the advocate that they should play less. Yeah, I think you’re not you’re not the only one. A lot of Wizards fans are. Yeah. But again, Ben, I mean, this is a game where they play Who do they play next? Is it Boston or? Uh, it’s Milwaukee. Milwaukee, sorry. So, that’s going to be a tough game. I mean again you played in the first game of the season got to figure out a way to defend Giannis undermpo but the way you played against Pascal Seakum tonight Giannis might drop 60. Yeah, I mean we’re I’ll see if they make that adjustment that I mean honestly could can Gooden go in the locker room and tell him what he’ been saying all night because I don’t know if that message was being relayed uh throughout the team because if Gooden’s pointing it out and they still aren’t doing it then clearly there’s some sort of disconnect where it’s either not getting executed by the players. I don’t know if like we don’t know what Keefe is telling them in a timeout or what David Vanderpool is telling these guys in a timeout, but it seems like there’s some sort of disconnect on how they need to adjust uh when they come out of timeouts in these situations where the other team goes on a a big run offensively because they just pretty much been unable to do it for the majority of the season and tonight it was really bad. All right. Well, AB, I think it’s time that we let everybody let it all out. We’ll have you do that when we come back. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to the fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. Keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fandal.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. It’s your favorite segment every postgame show here on the Lockdown Wizards program. Let it all out. AB, get us going. Mr. Bond V2, thank you for liking, commenting, and subscribing to the Locked on Wizards channel. I see a lot of good moves by Will Riley and even AJ Johnson. Hope they can insert them more. Yeah, Will Will Riley has a nice way of when his defender cuts him off and is forced to pick up his dribble. Fadeaway jumper mid-range style. I I love to see that. Hopefully, we see them more throughout the season. Young M1L, thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing. Why is TV even on the roster? He’s so awful and doesn’t look like an NBA player and a CEO of the TV fan club. I still want to cut him some slack because he’s in year three. He is a a really young guy, a second round pick, very raw. I don’t know if it’s Let me ask you this, Ben. I do think there’s a possibility where they assign him to the capital city goal or do you think he’s just permanent on this Wizards roster? Uh, I got I mean, how many games has he played at this point? Cuz you cap out at 50, right? Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I was just wondering. Yeah. I mean, because he has a good amount of DMPS, I feel like. So, I I feel like he’ll be a guy that stays up for a lot of the season given the depth that they have right now. And obviously Baggley now who’s been on the men once and tonight didn’t even play. Uh then maybe you see something like that. He’s lost on defense every time. We may as well play four on five when he’s on the floor. Yeah, I mean not every again defensively it’s not just Tristan Vujovic, but I can see your frustration. Noah Masi, shout out to Noah says, “Happy birthday, AB. I appreciate you, man. I appreciate you.” Halloween Tay Upt says, “Gotta coach it better, gotta play it better.” 100%. Jay, shout out to Jay. Cass Properties LLC4884, a wizard himself. Bal and Bob getting more minutes than Cam is laughable. Yeah, I think with Cam Whitmore, just the him not getting 20 or at least 25 minutes a game. It’s just a common theme that I just don’t understand. It really to me doesn’t make any sense. Maybe coach Keefe sees more priority in Bal and Bub because they were draft picks from this regime. I’m I’m just trying to figure it out. Maybe that’s a reason why, but I don’t think it’s the right reason. If especially on a night where Ken Whitmore is on fire, you have to play him more. And it’s also hard for him to get those reps if he’s not in the game. So, it’s just it’s tough. It’s tough. Coach Hall 86. Nothing is going to change until we make a change. Yeah, I can see that. Baxa to Baxa 2014. can get Keith the f off his team. I don’t care if Trey was hurt, he cannot coach his team anymore. You want you want to answer that that one, Ben? See, I just I try to keep it within perspective and I’ve definitely had my my fair share of gripes with Brian Keef and I’d say tonight is a night where I’m a little frustrated because I think they refused to adjust or they didn’t make the necessary adjustments and I don’t expect this team to be great. I don’t expect them to win a lot of games. I expect them to have plenty of growing pains throughout the season, but in the two times where you’ve played the two worst teams in the NBA, you’ve looked by far and away like the much much worse team. Uh, and in the course of the 14game losing streak that you just went on, uh, and then moving into tonight with Tuesday, of course, being the outlier in the situation, you’ve looked like one of the worst NBA teams ever. And they they don’t play any defense. They don’t adjust. They don’t put in the necessary effort on the glass a lot of nights. They don’t rotate well enough. They don’t communicate. They don’t have guys move on a string. I think there are some fundamental issues that are, you know, evident maybe because of the current coaching in place. I’m not going to say that it’s definitive because I don’t know that for sure. I don’t think anybody necessarily knows that for sure. Uh but it’s something to keep in mind. And this is a season where the Wizards obviously want to lose plenty of games. And I’m sure right now with the way the tank standings are working and how bad Indiana’s been, I don’t think the Wizards are going to be too upset with losing this game tonight when it comes when Bush comes to shove downturn later in the season. And who knows, maybe if it comes down to a game or two, we’ll actually be happy that we ended up losing this game tonight when it comes to the end of the season. But right now in the moment, uh, when you see them not putting great forth effort defensively, which is what they preach in the offseason, it’s frustrating and I understand it. Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. CJ still takes too many shots. Yeah. I mean, he just came off a 46-point performance, so maybe you thought he could keep it up, but it’s just not sustainable. And maybe some of those tough shots that he takes could go to the young guys. The Bob and Malaw show is tough to watch. These those two are garbage. I wouldn’t say garbage. I still think they’re young. There’s still a lot of development that needs to be done. I can’t wait till after the trade deadline. I’m trying to see these young guns go to work. Yeah, I think that’s that’s a good point. That’s what we saw last season where after you deal away Kyle Koosma, you saw the young guys, just everyone as a team play as a team and play better. Free Adrian Cam Sar played with effort. He’s clear-cut out franchise player. Yeah, I that’s what I’ve been saying. I remember so many Wizards fans out there were claiming that this kid’s a bust. He’s not fit to be a center or power forward. Do you think that’s still up for debate, Ben? What position he plays better at? I just think the kid’s good. I don’t really care what he plays. I think I think they need another big alongside him. I think that would make him even better whether it translates to him being the center or he’s the power forward dog. I watched Boozer last night Duke Arkansas game. Cam Boozer is definitely that guy. Um so I’m going to continue to monitor him. Like he had 33. I think he was creating his own shot. He can handle the basketball. He dominates on the glass. Cam Boozer is a freaking dog. He’s one of them ones. Aiden 40002 says, “Baggler should have played, bro.” Yeah, that’s a that’s a question that definitely needs to be asked to coach Brian Keefe why he didn’t play because he was available. Halloween Tay Up says, “We got to play better defensively.” SMH, totally totally agree. I thought Bal was a defensive savant tonight. It just seemed like no one out there was playing defense, so we expect better, especially from Bal. Effort, effort, effort. BC was getting cooked repeatedly. Yeah. Coach Hall says, “No defense, no wins.” Yeah. Oh yeah, there we go. I was I was waiting how long until someone mentioned any idea? Go ahead. It’s It’s very hard to win a basketball game when you don’t play defense and you don’t rebound. Uh tonight they didn’t even play offense either. So that’s why the score was as bad as it was. Yeah, today’s NBA you can’t score less than 90 points and expect to win win a game. But it’s not the answer. Should have kept FDA. Oh man, Denny of that’s one for the books. Mental edge 2398. They weren’t trying to win this game. It’s a good point. It never makes no sense. This game made it real clear why Kisser is needed. I mean, again, maybe if Cory Kisper plays tonight, it’s a 20 point loss or 15 point loss compared to 30, but a loss is still a loss. Andy Walkin 6838 said, “This teammate just trey_bug 202 says, “The scoring inconsistency is crazy.” Yep. Coach Hall also says, “We need a star veteran.” Maybe you get that when the when cap space you can sign someone, but I just don’t see a veteran coming here with a young roster. Mental edge 239. I stopped watching when the end of the second quarter when Milit threw a soft lob to Sar and the Pacers player just leaned over and tipped at the ball went the other way in first quarter. I was done. I can definitely see why he checked out again. It’s hard. It’s hard keeping up because if you’re down 20 to 25 points to a team that has the same amount of wins as you, it’s like what are we doing here? This This is a fun one. Look at this, man. All right. All right. All right. Let’s calm down. Let’s calm down. Best 3780 says Wizards will lose to Duke by 10. I completely dis I understand hyperbolizing the situation. Uh I don’t think he actually believes that. Chuck is definitely smarter than that in this situation. I mean, AB I I wonder is it is it because it’s a holiday I guess technically Black Friday? Is it Friday night thing? or people just getting a little bit less interested because the team lost by 33 uh to the Pacers cuz usually we have like 50 to 60 people in here post game. We got about half that right now. So I guess I guess people made some other plans after what they saw in the second and third quarter. So that’s tough. That’s tough. Tonight was tonight was not a good night for the Wizards. Yeah, it it wasn’t. It wasn’t like call it spade a spade, but they have the opportunity to bounce back against Milwaukee. I also want to say it, guys. I hate this argument because the worst NBA team. Maybe it’s the Wizards. They would destroy the best college basketball team. It’s It’s I hate when people bring up that argument. It’s so dumb. Like, how is that even possible? I remember at one point when the Browns went 0 and6, they were saying Alabama could be the Browns in a football game. No. No, they can’t. Any There There’s levels to it, guys. I’m sorry. Respectfully. Oh, man. One of those nights, the Wizards lose big time to the Indiana Pacers. Uh failed to adjust. Season low offensive output. A a recipe for disaster. And the Wizards get a loss that might end up helping them in terms of the tank standings at some point. We’ll just have to see how that plays out. But we’re going to thank everybody for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. We thank all the everydayers especially. We hope all of you had a fantastic holiday yesterday and continue to have a great rest of your weekend. We’ll be back with you. Wizards coverage Monday through Fridays. Be sure to check out Lockdown NBA fantasy basketball with Josh Lloyd to get your fantasy lineup right. For my co-host Abdullah Yubie, I’m Ben Strober, DC family. We’ll talk to you later.

The Washington Wizards could not win multiple games in a row for the first time since March, 2025. They were handled by the two-win Pacers, who exposed the Wizards’ poor defense all night, with little adjustment.

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