The Washington Wizards dropped their 13th consecutive game, this time against the Detroit Pistons, as Bub Carrington notches a new season high
The Washington Wizards shined early with Bub Carrington picking up the scoring efforts late, but in the end, it was not nearly enough to take down the Detroit Pistons in an eventual 130-117 loss, the first of two meetings this week.
Bub Carrington scored 21 of his team-high - and season-high - 30 points in the second half on 12-of-16 shooting, including 6-of-8 from three, in 37 minutes. Will Riley led the way early and finished with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting, his second consecutive game scoring 21 points. Jaden Hardy added 16 points behind four made threes, while Justin Champagnie finished just shy of a double double with 18 points and nine rebounds in 29 minutes.
The Wizards were without Kyshawn George, Trae Young, Alex Sarr and Bilal Couliably on Tuesday night.
But Tuesday night would be the Jalen Duran show after finishing with a game-high 36 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes, overpowering the Wizards in the paint and serving as the catalyst in the second half run. The Pistons also got 62 points from their bench after watching Cade Cunningham go down.
Washington opened going shot for shot with the Pistons after hitting five of their first seven attempts before rookie Will Riley caught hot, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting in what was a confident showing from him early.
Jaden Hardy would open the second quarter with an open three and nice pass to Tristan Vukcevic for the layup, but the opening minutes would be highlighted by Cade Cunningham after colliding misplay and exiting to the locker room before being ruled out due to back spams.
Hardy would go on to lead the way in the second quarter with eight points while Bub Caring
Jalen Duran would pick up the scoring slack for the Pistons after posting a game-high 15 points at halftime, fueling Detroit to a 63-57 halftime lead.
The Wizards would keep it to a single digit thanks to four early points from Riley in the opening minutes, but it would only be a matter of time until Detroit took back over, leading to tensions boiling over after both Tre Johnson and Daniss Jenkins were issued double technicals with four minutes left in the quarter. The Pistons then stretched their lead to as many as 22 points before Jaden Hardy answered with a quick triple, leading to a Detroit timeout with the game already decided.
Washington would manage to cut it to 11 after a three from Bub Carrington, his 22nd point of the night, leading to a Pistons timeout with roughly four and a half minutes left, but it would be the closest Washington would get the rest of the way.
The Wizards will host Detroit again on Thursday night for the fourth and final meeting between the two teams with tipoff set for 7 PM.