The Washington Wizards are finally coming back home, and do they ever need some comfortability entering mid-November. They went winless over a four-game losing streak that extended the active streak to five consecutive defeats, with their slew of weaknesses growing borderline-comical given just how little they’ve attempted to offset their growing concerns.
The Detroit Pistons were just one of the numerous teams who handed the Wizards a humbling over their road trip, and they’re taggling along with the returning visitors in a D.C.-hosted rematch for their second meet-up in three days. In the interest in salvaging their early 4-8 record, Washington had better learn from the mistakes they made between their 122-111 loss in Detroit and the Indiana Pacers defeat that sandwiched these Pistons encounters.
How Long can the Wizards Ride Davis?
Anthony Davis may not play the most developmentally-friendly style of basketball, regularly stopping offensive flow in order to hoist his own patient attempts, but it’s hard to argue with his possession-bailouts when he plays as well as he did a few days ago. He scored 44 points in Detroit for his highest single-game total in four years, and did so on 16/21 shooting.
Anthony Davis MASTERCLASS vs Detroit.
44 PTS | 13 REB | 16/21 FG | 2/4 3FG | 85 TS% pic.twitter.com/1vfmY6bnyy
— Basketball Performances (@NBAPerformances) November 10, 2026
The usually-defensively-stout Pistons had no one to effectively throw at Davis, already more undersized than usual without the muscular Jalen Duren to at least body up against the fellow All-Star big. He’ll remain inactive for the Washington visit with a still-tender hamstring injury, leaving the Pistons potentially-vulnerable against another scoring explosion from AD and his 25 point-per-game threat.
Important to note: he wasn’t nearly as successful last night in Indiana, as Ivica Zubac proved successful in baiting Davis to beat the Pacers as a perimeter jump-shooter without the finesse to out-maneuver his defender in the lane. And on the second game of a back-to-back, there’s no guarantee that he’ll have quite so full of a tank amidst another attempt at carrying his supporting cast.
The Pistons’ Disproportionate Scoring Help
Cade Cunningham will be sure to headline any opposing scouting report on the Pistons for at least another decade, or as long as he’s able to continue leveraging his playmaking burden into an offense unto himself. Even if he lacked Davis’ gentle finishing touch on that night, he still proved valuable with 17 points and seven assists with aggressive driving intentions all throughout the game.
That had to feel like something resembling a marginal win for a Wizards team who’s struggled containing Cunningham in the past, but allowing three of his role players to score 20+ completely neutralized any of their point-of-attack shut-downs. Duncan Robinson, Daniss Jenkins and John Collins combined for 68 points, a far cry from what Davis’ own shooters managed to compile.
Even though AJ Dybantsa and Trae Young got their points, it certainly didn’t look nearly as productive as Davis’ own methods, and that’s without getting into a bench unit that continues to leave viewers wanting. Tre Johnson, Deandre Ayton and Bub Carrington, the lone second-stringers who earned any real burn, each finished with just one bucket apiece.
Even though the Pistons aren’t exactly renowned for their own 3-point proficiency, that doesn’t mean that the Wizards should play to that level of competition. Even more haunting: the Wizards actually won the battle on the offensive boards while attempting and connecting on more threes than the Pistons, their two more glaring armor chinks, meaning that this is a loss that can be almost-entirely chalked up to lineup depth that wasn’t prepared enough to square up against a contender.
The Wizards’ Already-Strange Home-Away Splits
The team’s reputation a mere week following their voyage to the midwest includes significantly-less optimism from their once-elated fan base, with their time on the road allowing the Wizards to spiral into all-new levels of inattentive sloppiness.
They’ve played twice as many games in hostile territory compared to outings in front of their home crowd, and anyone claiming that their levels of defensive effort have plateaued aren’t imagining such a theme. Their visiting defensive rating of 118.1 is considerably-more worrying than their hometown mark of 105.2, especially when stacked up against an offense that’s scoring at a similar clip. Even if the offensive rebounding has slightly improved, the Wizards have too many jogging transition defenders for a squad as on-need of winning and development as they are.
At least in their most recent exhibition at Capital One Arena, a 120-105 defeat to Young’s old team in the Atlanta Hawks, the Wizards were still spreading the ball in racking up 25 assists. A week later, they’d barely surpassed that total over their previous two performances combined, most recently notching a paltry 12 assists in Indiana. Remember, that was a game in which they entered the fourth quarter tied before ultimately succumbing to the shorthanded, Tyrese Haliburton-less Pacers, 114-101.
A good chunk of the public are already out on this team as the Eastern Conference dark horse they were propped up to be, still too littered with raw contributors while saddled with a few too many questionable contractual dilemmas for all of the pieces to fit together. If they have any intentions of shaking up the tired, confusing formula, their homecoming seems like as good a time as any to start bucking some of these troublesome traits.
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