The Washington Wizards haven’t had a whole lot of success to have fun this yr, however gave the impression to be properly on their solution to incomes their third victory of the season on Monday night time. Up by 23 factors at one level within the second half, and in the end led by a team-high 34 factors from beginning ahead Kyle Kuzma, the crew on paper appeared to have the recipe to cruise to a simple win.
Finally, although, you in all probability know from the headline above that’s… not how issues performed out. In a season that has seen them operate as extra of a touring basketball prop comedy act than an expert crew, the Wizards opted to do the funniest factor attainable, and collapse in a means beforehand unimaginable.
The Raptors had chipped away on the lead by having Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam go proper at Kuzma the entire second half, however with the Wizards up simply 10 with a bit over 5 minutes remaining, Kuzma unintentionally prevented being focused… by strolling again to the Wizards bench and arguing for head coach Wes Unseld Jr. to problem a name whereas the Raptors have been inbounding.
Toronto observed they have been taking part in 5-on-4, inbounded rapidly, and Barnes scored to chop the deficit to eight.
The Wizards went on to overlook their subsequent 10 pictures and permit what was, in totality, a 22-1 run to shut the sport. Kuzma wasn’t achieved making errors, both, as he primarily clinched the sport for Toronto by stepping out of bounds whereas catching a move because the Wizards tried to tie or take the lead down two factors with 6.1 seconds left, leaving even our most esteemed basketball Twitter wordsmiths consulting a thesaurus:
With an opportunity to tie or take the lead, they inbounds to Kuzma, who steps out of bounds. “Abominable,” it says right here.
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) November 14, 2023
As my buddies over at Bullets Ceaselessly wrote of their recreation recap — “The worst half: the Wizards didn’t even appear interested by profitable in these clutch minutes, as in the event that they have been considering already on the lottery balls.”
It was, nevertheless, a giant night time for Jordan Poole, as there was lastly a viral comedy of errors for Washington that wasn’t his fault.
Simply 10 video games in, the Wizards really could have already captured the title of funniest sports activities crew of all time. Their remaining 72 video games could also be must-watch for no different cause than to see how they will prime this.
