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Inside The Wizards

Three Wizards Narratives to Note Entering Pistons-Hosted Leg of Disastrous Road Trip

The Washington Wizards are continuing to slip further from their winning ways as they struggle to fix their most glaring weaknesses, and their competition isn't getting any easier to start this week.
Henry Brown|
Feb 5, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Washington Wizards center Alex Sarr (20) defends Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) during the second half at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Reginek-Imagn Images
Feb 5, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Washington Wizards center Alex Sarr (20) defends Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) during the second half at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Reginek-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Washington Wizards

The Washington Wizards of the regular season's first two weeks seemed different from what locals had grown used to. They still weren't great, still just as disorganized and in search of identity as your average team who'd just escaped the darkest era of the rebuilding process, but they were at least trading losses with occasional wins. They were 4-3 through their first seven games, riding their obvious talent into poundings over similarly-vulnerable competition.

That was before they hit the road for their first substantial field trip of the season, now over halfway through a sequence that's included five away games over the course of Washington's first six November outings. And following their winless dud over two consecutive matchups entering the weekend, the youthfully-messy Wizards look to avoid all-out spiraling against last season's top seed out east in the Detroit Pistons.

On some of the more fascinating storylines fans should bear in mind entering the Detroit-hosted exhibition, especially regarding the spots on both rosters upon which the Wizards should exhibit caution.

Beware the Pistons' Defense

This time 24 hours ago, the Pistons had the top-rated defense in the league, a mark that's since-slipped to a 105.4 defensive rating- good enough to outmatch everyone not named the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Unfortunately for the Wizards, they don't have an Austin Reaves to punk Detroit with a 40-piece in Luka Dončić's stead. How do we know this? Well, no one in Washington's lineup has totaled that in a game yet, and their highest nightly-scorer, Anthony Davis, hasn't played yet on this active road trip.

Just look at what it required for Reaves' Los Angeles Lakers to edge the 6-3 Pistons out. Stop-and-pop jumpers through contact, fading leaners, prayer 3-pointers that occasionally needed the glass to fall through. While the Wizards do have scorers of their own outside of Davis, no one is seasoned-enough while playing with the present consistency to punish the hard-hustling Pistons with that same finesse.

They'll unquestionably test the Wizards' effort level, a point of emphasis that Washington's critics have zeroed in on over the three-game slide. Boxing out for rebounds and hitting on a few more threes than the similarly-coy-shooting Pistons hoist will be key in catching Detroit on the second leg of their own scheduled back-to-back.

Sorting Out the Double-Big Dilemma

If nothing else, the Wizards' embarrassing 114-75 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder included an aggressive performance out of Alex Sarr, Washington's most confusing developmental chip of the bunch. He shot 6/8 within the arc en route to 15 points, making up for his mostly-inaccurate showing as a spot-up option while racking up season-highs in rebounds (14) and offensive boards (five).

Questions surrounding his effectiveness as a feebler rim-runner will continue prevailing if he's limited finishing outside of putback layups, and that absence of Davis' high-post bag work or Deandre Ayton's raw physicality have shown in the Wizards' various offensive ratings.

Whether Sarr's sharing the court with another big to push him into the corner or he's out there alone with floor-spacers, the scoring's been noticeably capped during his minutes.

Davis has yet to be officially activated with the Pistons looming, and the sturdier scorer has a much-higher chance of punishing the physical Pistons compared to Sarr, even if momentum looks to be on the side of the younger alternative. Either way, Sarr will start, already sentencing his Wizards teammates to a deeper scoring hole than usual that they'll have to escape.

Recent Experience with the Pistons

The Wizards have actually enjoyed some successful moments at the Pistons' expense over the last calendar year. Looking further back beyond their preseason-opening victory in Detroit, the Wizards actually got the better of the eventual-60-win squad in Detroit on one occasion, and the Pistons required an overtime period to fully-shake the Wizards for their first 2025-26 matchup of the bunch a few months prior.

That loss looked a lot more admirable on paper than it felt in-game, especially considering the 46-point triple-double that Cade Cunningham dumped on the fledgling Wizards. They couldn't stop fouling him on the physical guard's relentless drives to the cup, yet still found a way to allow one of his role players, Daniss Jenkins, to embarrass them with an open corner three over the distracted Bub Carrington to send the game to OT.

Cunningham hasn't gone anywhere, though the offense around him remains a work in progress. As previously stated, they only shoot a few more threes per game while leaning heavily on Duncan Robinson's early 18 point-per-game average, sorely missing Tobias Harris' impact from last season in patching together Cunningham's perimeter scoring help.

The Wizards, to their own credit, do have a more versatile- if still theoretical- offense beyond the Cunningham-centric pick-and-roll attack. Kyshawn George's up to over 18 a night himself on a revived jumper, AJ Dybantsa's loved the contact teams like the Pistons are sure to challenge him with while both Trae Young and Tre Johnson have proven capable of peeking above water for the occasional shot-making outburst. They aren't automatically classified as lame ducks as the visitors, but they can't roll over again like they just did in Oklahoma City.

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Henry Brown
HENRY BROWN

Henry covers the Washington Wizards with prior experience as a sports reporter with The Baltimore Sun, the Capital Gazette and The Lead. A Bowie, MD native, he earned his Journalism degree at the University of Maryland.

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