Why the Wizards have struggled this year, and why they should snap out of it

The Washington Wizards have suffered embarrassing bookend losses in their past 10 games, a 47-point rout to the Jazz on Dec. 4 and now a 35-point blowout against Brooklyn on Friday. Between those two games, Washington played quite well — they were 5-3 in the other eight. But those two losses stand out from the crowd, and so does Washington’s inconsistencies.

The Wizards are a playoff team right now and sit at 17-15. It should be noted that they also spent two weeks without their best player, and John Wall continued to nurse his knee with a minutes restriction. (He only played 16 minutes in Friday night’s loss, though he prepared to play about 25 before the game turned to carnage.)

Washington won 49 games last season, the third-best mark for the team since they relocated to Washington permanently and the best since the 1978-79 season. (They also broke an absurdly long division title drought.) It was a moment, and a team, that was finally able to attract the attention of the city.

Those Wizards are virtually the same as these Wizards, but the results haven’t quite been duplicated yet.

Wall’s knee injury — which kept him from 100 percent while he tried to play through it, and then caused him to miss two weeks — is the most obvious issue. He has been a worse, less efficient scorer this season while generating less offense around him, and that’s a problem for Washington’s best player.

Without Wall, players like Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat suffer. Both players, especially Gortat’s subtle screening game, need an elite ball handler to push them to their best selves.

Scott Brooks has done little to solve those problems, and his Friday minutes plan was straight-up bizarre. Facing his first back-to-back since returning, Wall was given a 25 minute limit and played nine in the first quarter, only to sit out the rest of the first half. Brooklyn took a 10-point lead into halftime and clobbered the Wizards in the third.

Washington may look like they’re floundering, but 17-15 is a good spot to be for a team that can clearly play better — and who will hopefully toss aside minute restrictions for their best player.

Certainly, Washington would like to pull itself out of the muddied playoff race and into firmer grounds. That won’t be too hard. They’re only two games back from the Bucks, who currently occupy the No. 4 seed. While the top-three in the Eastern Conference may be out of reach at this point, Washington still seems like the best bet to pull ahead of the pack if they can get on a roll.