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GAME INFO
Little Caesars Arena | 7 p.m. | TV: NBCSW | Radio: The Team 980 & Wizards App
The Wizards are in Detroit on Wednesday night, taking on the Pistons at 7 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena. Washington is on its first three-game losing streak of the season and will be wrapping up a three-game road trip. Detroit enters the matchup having lost nine in a row and sits at 15th in the Eastern Conference.
INJURY REPORT
WIZARDS: Davis Bertans (gastroenteritis – available), Thomas Bryant (left ACL injury recovery – out), Rui Hachimura (return to competition reconditioning – out)
PISTONS: Hamidou Diallo (right face fracture – questionable), Cory Joseph (right knee inflammation – probable), Kelly Olynyk (left knee sprain – out)
STORYLINES
Wizards evaluating adjustments as slide continues
After a loss on Monday night dropped the Wizards to 14-11, Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. acknowledged that some sort of change was on the horizon for Washington, whether it be to the lineup, schematics or the team’s approach.
“Anything is on the table,” Unseld Jr. said after the loss to Indiana. “We’re not where we want to be. We haven’t played well. I can’t sit here and say things are absolute or we’re going to do one thing or another. We’re going to take a hard look at it and see what we like and what we don’t like and why things all of a sudden aren’t working.”
Wednesday night will be the team’s first opportunity to put the change to action.
“It's from a positive mindset,” Bradley Beal said. “I don’t hit the panic button. I don’t think anybody here is hitting the panic button, but there is a sense of urgency that needs to increase from everybody, just in terms of our approach, our effort. We each just have to give a little bit more effort. We have the skill. We have the talent. That’s never in question…We’re still chipping away and figuring out a lot of things on the fly with little practice. At the same time, we’re pros and we’ve got to go out there and get the job done.”
Beal looks to back up breakout game
Bradley Beal comes into Wednesday’s game against the Pistons off one of his best performances of the season, pouring in an efficient 34 points on 12-19 (.631), 11 of which came in the second half. The 34-point night snapped a streak of four consecutive games scoring under 20 points. Against Detroit, Beal matches up with a team he’s found success against in recent outings. In his last seven games against the Pistons, Beal has scored 32-plus points three times, including the teams’ most recent outing late last season. In that game, Beal put on a show, totaling 37 points on 13-22 (.591) from the field and 4-6 (.667) from three to go along with three rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
Cunningham driving the Pistons offense
Despite their recent run of nine-consecutive losses, including five of the last six by at least 11 points, the Pistons have a silver lining they can look to in rookie point guard Cade Cunningham. Drafted first overall in July’s NBA Draft, Cunningham checks in at 6’6” and 220 pounds – and uses every bit of his size to his advantage when driving the Detroit offense. Cunningham is coming off one of the best games of his young career, scoring a season-high 28 points to go along with 11 rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals. In each of the last three games, he’s scored at least 19 points and shot over 45.0% from the field and 54.0% from 3-point range.
TICKETS
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