Wizards can’t afford slipup vs. Pistons

The Washington Wizards don’t want to rely on help from other teams to make the NBA’s play-in tournament. The past 10 days have put them in a precarious position.They have recorded just one victory during their past six games, but they will face the team they defeated — the Detroit Pistons — on Tuesday night in Washington.Washington, which fell 112-93 to the host Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, sits a half-game behind the Chicago Bulls for 10th place and the final Eastern Conference play-in berth.”We’re not looking around needing help from any other teams across the league,” wing Corey Kispert said. “If we win games, we’re in, and if we lose games, we’re out. It’s really that simple.”Every day when we come to the gym from now until the end of the season, whenever that is, we’ve got to be fighting and clawing for everything.”Washington dropped back-to-back home games to the Atlanta Hawks prior to the loss in Philadelphia. The Wizards edged the Pistons 119-117 on March 7 on Daniel Gafford’s last-second putback.The Wizards had all of their main offensive players available on Sunday, but except for a 31-point second quarter, the Sixers put the clamps on them. Washington shot 40.5 percent overall and 23.1 percent on 3-point attempts.The trio of Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma scored a combined 34 points, 33 points below their usual output.”A lot of those situations we just couldn’t get in an offensive rhythm. We couldn’t capitalize,” Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. said. “To (the 76ers’) credit, they’re a good defensive team. But we had allowed them to defend us that way, by not finding action, not moving the ball and just settling in and stagnating.”Kispert tied his career best with 25 points but took little solace in his individual performance.”We weren’t ready to play (Sunday),” he said. “We were flat, but shots ended up falling down for me personally. Little bit of a two-sided thing.”

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