NBA: Chicago Bulls at Washington Wizards

Contract Photographer

NBA: Washington Wizards at Indiana Pacers

NBA: Boston Celtics at Washington Wizards

NBA: Washington Wizards at New York Knicks

Corey Kispert,Kyle Kuzma

Kyle Kuzma,Simone Fontecchio

Wizards Hawks Basketball

Wizards Spurs Basketball

NBA: Washington Wizards at San Antonio Spurs

Washington Wizards v Houston Rockets

Staff

NBA: Washington Wizards at Orlando Magic

Corey Kispert,Zach Edey

NBA - Miami Heat v Washington Wizards

NBA: Golden State Warriors at Washington Wizards

Mexico Heat Wizards Basketball

Men's basketball Michigan State at University of Maryland

The Washington Post

staff

NBA: Atlanta Hawks at Washington Wizards

Washington Wizards v Atlanta Hawks

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Whether leaderboard ad sticky behavior is disabled

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show expanded byline information on articles

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Show the Balance of Power component on the new Election subnav component

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Enable new Elections subnav on Site pages

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

If true, will use a spoofed user agent to scrape and summarize content from paywalled sources

flip back to old full page reload when new updates come in

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Trump transition live updates: Trump selects Greer for trade representative; critic of covid shutdowns to lead NIH

The biggest sports news, video, scores and analysis

See more on this topic in your recommendations

Sports

The Sports Moment newsletter

Sports alerts

Geoff Burke

Every few games, Alex Sarr delivers the Washington Wizards a tantalizing glimpse of his potential. These outings often align with the games in which the rookie shoots a respectable clip from beyond the three-point arc.

Tuesday night at Capital One Arena was the latest piece of evidence that the Wizards have the raw material for a special player. The No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft made a career-high four three-pointers (on five attempts) and matched his career high with 20 points in a 127-108 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

The Wizards’ 12th straight defeat largely stemmed from a disastrous second quarter, which saw them outscored by 22. Washington (2-14) shot 36.4 percent from the field and committed seven of its 12 turnovers in the frame. The Bulls (8-11) were led by Coby White’s 21 points. Kyle Kuzma led the Wizards with 23.

“It really came down to one quarter,” Wizards Coach Brian Keefe said.

sports moment newsletter promo

Reporter Ava Wallace takes you through the buzziest, most engaging sports stories of the week. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/sportsmoment/?method=SURL&location=ART&initiative=CONTEXT" target=_blank><b>Sign up for the weekly newsletter</b></a>

But like other nights for the Wizards, a team still early in a new regime’s rebuild, this was a loss balanced with the promise of young talent. Sarr went 7 for 11 from the field and added seven rebounds, building another strong game on the back of Sunday’s 17-point, 14-rebound performance <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/11/24/wizards-pacers-malcolm-brogdon/" target=_blank>against the Indiana Pacers</a>.

The hot shooting probably won’t continue; Sarr entered the game shooting 20 percent from beyond the arc on more than four attempts per game. The incongruity between volume and accuracy from deep stems from Washington’s twin beliefs: that Sarr will eventually be an accurate shooter and that these in-game repetitions will help him get there. Those improvements have seemingly already started.

Malcolm Brogdon said he noticed Sarr rushing some three-point attempts earlier this season and counseled the rookie to take his time.

“If you’re going to pop … don’t rush,” Brogdon said. " … He’s starting to slow down and really find his touch behind the three. And he’s also learning to roll a little bit, to mix it up, to keep the defense on their toes.”

The Wizards get little rest. Washington will host the Los Angeles Clippers, who have won five of their past six and will have an extra day of rest, on Wednesday night.

Brogdon, in his ninth season, knows that recovery is as much about work as it is rest. He outlined his plan for the night, which starts with eating his postgame meal on the way home. Then comes an approximately 30-minute sit in the sauna. He will be in bed by around 12:30 a.m. and will try to stay off his feet for most of Wednesday until he gets to the arena. All the while, he’ll hydrate — in his words, “over drinking.”

But, as the 31-year-old explained, back-to-backs are as much about mental preparation as physical.

“You know you’re going to be tired, but you have to convince yourself that you’re not, that you’re fresh, that you’re okay,” he said. “Your body will get through it if your mind can.”

Jordan Poole missed his second straight game with left hip flexor soreness. The injury isn’t severe, according to Keefe, who said the guard suffered it on a fall late in Friday’s loss to the Boston Celtics. Poole went through an on-court workout before the game, practicing his off-the-dribble shooting.

Absences are rare for Poole, who played in the first 14 games of the season and played at least 76 games in each of the previous three campaigns. He played 78 games last season, his first with Washington.

“This guy plays through a lot of pain. It’s pretty impressive what he did last year,” Keefe said pregame. “But sometimes you just can’t go.”

Former Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr., now an assistant coach for the Bulls, faced his former team for the first time since being <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/01/25/wes-unseld-removed-wizards-coach/" target=_blank>ousted midway</a> through last season. Unseld was moved into an advisory role in the front office in January and was replaced by Keefe, then in an interim capacity. Unseld received warm welcomes from multiple Wizards staffers before Tuesday’s game.

“Unbelievable man.” said Anthony Gill, who played for Unseld during his 2½-year stint as coach in Washington “And to see him on the sideline again … it makes my heart happy.”

University of Maryland

Varun Shankar is The Post's Washington Wizards beat reporter.

Varun Shankar

washpost

the-washington-post

USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

name

prism://prism.query/site,/sports/wizards&limit=20

Washington Wizards

Washington Wizards news from The Washington Post.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/sports&limit=20

Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI.

The Washington Post Sports section provides sports news, video, scores, analysis and updates about high school, college, and pro sports teams, including the Capitals, Nationals, Commanders, United, Wizards, Mystics and Spirit. Post Sports also offers discussions about the latest sports news.