Preview: The Wizards are going for a SEVENTH straight win
Feb 1, 2023 - 12:00 AMThe Washington Wizards’ active six-game win streak is the longest in the NBA. Coming off their first win in San Antonio since 1999, they are off to Detroit to try and make it seven straight.
A Wizards win would be a mutually beneficial affair for both parties. Washington would extend their win streak while eking ever-so-closer to .500, and the Pistons would add another loss to the books in their pursuit of Victor Wembanyama.
The Pistons should not be much of a challenge for the Wizards. Detroit sits at a paltry 13-39, just narrowly edging out the Houston Rockets to avoid the “worst team in the league” moniker. They’ve been short Cade Cunningham all year, as last year’s number-one overall pick suffered a season-ending injury just 12 games into the season.
The rest of Detroit’s roster is filled with rookies not quite ready to make an impact (Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren), former first-round picks fighting not to flame out (Saddiq Bey, Killian Hayes and Marvin Bagley) and a bunch of misfits from other teams (Kevin Knox, Hamidou Diallo, Nerlens Noel, etc). Oh, and they have former Wizard Bojan Bogdanović, who is quietly having a fantastic season after arriving in Detroit via the Utah Jazz. Did you know Bogdanović is averaging over 21 points per game on 63% true shooting?
Meanwhile, the Wizards have been rolling since a pair of losses against the Knicks and Warriors in mid-January. A win in Detroit would push them to a 25-26 record with 31 games to play in a season that looked completely lost just two weeks ago. Washington sits in ninth place, just half a game behind the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks. It still looks near-impossible to escape the play-in, but just about anything is better than last year’s twelfth-place finish.
The Wizards at Pistons game tips off at 7 p.m. EST tomorrow. ESPN’s matchup predictor gives the Wizards a 65.9% chance to win, and the key to doing so is locking up Bogdanović. Detroit’s wild card has shown this year that he is liable to go for 30-plus any given evening, but it should be smooth sailing for the Wizards if they can keep him quiet.
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