Could someone call the Washington Wizards and tell them it’s 2026? Because their last game against the Thunder looked like they were playing like it’s 1996. Washington finished with just 75 points, shooting a miserable 30% from the field and just 16% from downtown. They were completely outmatched in every aspect of the game, scoring under 20 points in 3 of the 4 quarters. Anthony Davis did not play, but an absence of just one player shouldn’t be so detrimental to a team regardless how important that player is. AD could return Monday against the Pistons, but the Wizards just aren’t looking good right now.
Back-to-back defeats to the 76ers and Lakers have slowed down the euphoria around the Pistons a bit. The absence of Duren was finally felt last night as the Lakers scored 58 points in the paint, which made all the difference in a tightly contested game. Playing on a back-to-back is never easy, but the Pistons did win their lone similar game of the season against Charlotte 97-89 behind 30 points and 7 assists from Cade. It’s also worth mentioning that last season the Pistons were elite when playing with no rest, going 12-2 SU in 14 games. This will be the first of three meetings this season, and each of the last two regular-season series has gone the Pistons way.
It’s a tricky proposal to back a team to win by double-digits after they just lost less than 24 hours ago. Especially when the opponent coming in had such a bad game and is expecting its best player to return from injury. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to the Wizards here; they can lose by 10 and still cover.
Wizards vs Pistons prediction: Wizards +10.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.
