The Wizards lost their 15th straight game Monday at Utah despite Jordan Poole’s 32 points off the bench. Already in the midst of one of the worst seasons in franchise history, Washington needs a win Wednesday at home against Orlando to avoid matching the team record for longest losing streak, set during the 2009-10 season.
“You got to have short-term memory and you got to just have faith at the end of the day,” Kyle Kuzma told reporters Monday when asked how a veteran stays positive about the long-term direction of his rebuilding team amid so much losing.
Wizards fans following Kuzma’s advice might forget the details of the franchise’s record 16-game losing streak, which, unlike this season’s struggles, was sparked by an unexpected midseason teardown. The month-long skid featured a whole lot of Andray Blatche doing Andray Blatche things and preceded Washington winning the 2010 NBA draft lottery and selecting Kentucky point guard John Wall. With this year’s team on the cusp of history, here’s a brief look back.
Coming off a 19-63 campaign in 2008-09, the Wizards’ Big Three of Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison had aspirations of returning to the playoffs under first-year coach Flip Saunders. With Jamison sidelined at the start of the year, Washington opened 2-7 and never got on track. Any hope of a turnaround was dashed after Arenas was suspended for the rest of the season for bringing guns into the locker room in late December.
Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson were dealt to the Dallas Mavericks in mid-February. Jamison was shipped out soon after as team president Ernie Grunfeld looked toward the future. Washington won three of its first four games after its roster overhaul began, but things went south after Josh Howard, who was acquired in the deal with Dallas, tore his ACL in his fourth game with the Wizards.
The losing streak began March 3 at Milwaukee, where the Wizards had as many turnovers (12) as points in the third quarter of a 100-87 defeat. Two days later, Washington hosted the Bucks and was booed off the court after a 102-74 loss.
“I wanted to bring it to them, get a payback game,” Blatche said. “They got us at their house. I wanted to get them at our house. But they came out, they did their job, and they got the win.”
Victory was in Washington’s grasp at Boston two days later, but the Celtics closed on a 20-4 run to secure an 86-83 win.
“We choked,” Saunders said. “Boston came at them, and our guys didn’t have the answer.”
Blatche was benched for the final four minutes of Washington’s next loss after committing five turnovers, including one The Washington Post’s Michael Lee described as “a no-look over-the-shoulder pass to no one in particular.”
Second-year center JaVale McGee scored a career-high 20 points in Washington’s loss to the Hawks on March 11, its fifth straight. That marked the start of a brutal stretch of five games in six days (including a rescheduled game that had been postponed in February because of a snowstorm). The Wizards’ sixth straight loss came against the Pistons, who swept the season series.
“That’s tough to lose to any Eastern Conference team four times in a row,” Blatche said. “You should get at least one out of the four. The thing about it is, we know we have them next year and we can get payback.”
(Washington went 1-2 against the Pistons in 2010-11.)
After a home loss to the Magic extended the losing streak to seven, Washington started a four-game trip with a 112-89 loss to the Jazz. Blatche was assessed a technical foul midway through the third quarter for taunting Mehmet Okur after a dunk that cut Utah’s lead to 22. Yes, 22. The Post reported that Jazz fans responded by chanting: “Scoreboard! Scoreboard!”
The streak reached 10 after losses at Denver and Portland, with the latter coming on a buzzer-beater by Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy. The miserable road trip ended with a 99-92 loss to the Lakers, who led by 26 points at halftime after Kobe Bryant scored 20 of his 24 points in the second quarter.
Washington had a golden opportunity to end the skid back home but lost to Charlotte in overtime, 95-86. Blatche was benched in the first quarter for refusing to listen to the coaching staff.
“Fifteen years, I’ve never seen anything like it — never,” Saunders said. “He can be pissed at me or whatever, but you never leave your teammates hanging out to dry like that, no matter what, especially when you’ve lost 11 games in a row and you’ve got a chance to win a game. Uncalled for. We’ll deal with it.”
Blatche returned to the lineup the next night at Indiana, where the Wizards tied a franchise record with their 13th consecutive loss.
“Our guys, we’re not looking at that,” Saunders said. “We’re trying to be competitive and look ahead. The reason we’re getting beat right now is teams are better than us. We’re not very good right now.”
With their 24th different starting lineup of the season — Blatche, Alonzo Gee, Shaun Livingston, Mike Miller and James Singleton — the Wizards established a franchise record with their 14th straight loss at Charlotte.
“It’s starting to be the same story for us every game,” Blatche said. “We be around, but every time the fourth quarter comes, we just stop doing the things that kept us in the game or help us win.”
A 16-point loss to Utah at home extended the streak to 15. Loss No. 16 came March 30 at Houston, where the Wizards set a franchise record for most players to appear in a game in a season. Cartier Martin was lucky No. 23.
The streak ended the next night, when Miller scored a season-high 27 points and Blatche added 23 in a 96-91 win at New Orleans.
“Even though we tried to give it away in the end, we were able to pull it out and win a game in March,” Saunders said.
The Wizards went 4-4 over the remainder of the regular season to finish 26-56, which was tied for the fourth-worst record in the league. With Irene Pollin, wife of late Wizards owner Abe Pollin, representing the team at the draft lottery, Washington defied the odds to claim the No. 1 pick. Perhaps a similar reward awaits this year’s squad, no matter how much longer its losing streak lasts.