Yesterday, the Washington Wizards lost to the Chicago Bulls, 121-120. They have now lost 14 in a row, the second longest losing streak in franchise history. Given that this season will inevitably have a lot of losing, the Wizards aren’t for off from their record of 16 consecutive losses.
And here’s the thing. The Wizards have lost 16 games in a row four times. Three of those times happened in the last two seasons:
It’s early to say whether the Wizards will “beat” their franchise worst regular season record of 15-67. I say that only because teams, especially playoff bound ones will intentionally begin to do “load management” in the second half of the season against the Wizards. So it wouldn’t be out of the question to see Washingotn get some wins against playoff bound teams in March and April when those other teams begin resting some or all of their starters.
But for now, things look pretty bleak. The Wizards are in prime position to tie their current losing streak record this Friday against the Indiana Pacers, even if Indy is just 2-14. Assuming Washington loses 16 straight then, Dec. 1 will be a home game against the Milwaukee Bucks when they could break the record.
Do I want to see this happen? No. But given the Wizards front office’s intent to continue letting the bottom fall out, I’m also surprised that Washington hasn’t had a franchise record losing streak yet.