It’s over!
For the final game of the Washington Wizards’ worst season in franchise history, the only question was will the Wizards finish with the worst record in the NBA or the second worst one?
The Wizards, as predicted by Kevin Broom, are about to finish the season with 15 wins if the Celtics reserves can muster a home win.
On the other hand, if the Pistons can squeeze a win at San Antonio later today the Wizards and the Pistons will be tied at 15 wins. Their season series is also tied at 2-2. Does anybody know which team finishes with better draft odds in that scenario?
Game recap
The most exciting event in the first quarter was J. Butler’s (J for Jared not Jimmy!) buzzer beater 3-pointer with 0.1 left on the clock to bring the Wizards within 4, 30—34 at the end of 12 minutes.
Led by this momentum then Wizards actually took the lead to the tune of 39—35 after 3 minutes into the second quarter, triggering a Celtics time-out. The Celtics responded and quickly took over the lead 39—40, and gradually increased the lead until a 3-pointer of Pritchard with 3 seconds on the clock brought the Celtics lead to double digits, 59—69.
The Wizards shot 5-from-19 from deep in the first half compared to the Celtics 9-for-18, and that was pretty much the difference in score. Pritchard was on fire for 22 first-half points including 4-from-5 from deep. Meanwhile the Wizards’ bench was keeping them in the game with 15 points from Omoruyi and 11 from Butler, and only a combined 24 from their starters. Oh, and why is Anthony Gill starting?!
The rest of the way was textbook garbage-time. The Celtics reserves of reserves toyed with the Wizards and the lead already increased to 23 in the third quarter, 74—97. Things stayed around that margin until the 6 or so minute mark of the 4th (100—122), at which point the Wizards went on one of their patented #SoWizards Garbage-Time-Combacks to nearly bring the lead down to single-digits 116—126 with 2 minutes to go.
The Wizards even did the one of (arguably) most shameful acts in the NBA: after the Celtics intentionally took a shot-clock violation and handed the ball over to the Wizards with 15 seconds left, the Wizards actually went for a basket, Jared Butler scored with 4 seconds left. Oh well… not a surprise, #SoWizards.
Final score: 132-122, Boston. Score leaders: Omoruyi with 26, Butler with 22, and Pritchard with 38 on 10-for-13 from the field, 6-from-8 from deep.
Thanks to the final buzzer another forgettable Wizards season can finally mercifully be put away. The Wizards finish the season at 15—67.