Welcome to the Washington Wizards season tracker. We will have dispatches from Washington’s games in this file. You can find my stories for The Washington Post, a Wizards podcast and other coverage here.
Tre Johnson to miss time with injury
Wizards rookie Tre Johnson will miss time with a strained left hip flexor, Coach Brian Keefe said after Monday’s practice.
Washington did not give a timetable for Johnson’s injury, which kept him out of Saturday’s loss to the Chicago Bulls, but the usual timetable for a return is roughly two to four weeks. Keefe said the team would reevaluate Johnson, the No. 6 pick in the draft, in two weeks. Spurs guard Stephon Castle, who has a similarly titled injury, is expected to miss two to three weeks.
Johnson has been dealing with the injury since college and re-aggravated it Friday against the Toronto Raptors, Keefe said. Since the summer league, the Wizards have tried to manage Johnson’s minutes to avoid a recurrence of the injury.
Johnson played the first two games of the summer showcase, averaging 27.5 minutes, before being held out of the latter three games with a right hamstring injury.
Johnson averaged just under 26 minutes per game in his first 12 NBA contests before dropping to 17.9 in his last three because of the injury. Johnson has often been seen wearing a pad on his hip while on the bench. He has also used a band to stretch with a trainer. Johnson is averaging 11.5 points per game on 44.5 percent shooting from the field.
“It shows how tough a kid this guy is,” Keefe said. “He’s been playing through some pain but he’s continuing to push through. But after [the Toronto] game, we decided to hold him out.”
Game 16: Bulls 121, Wizards 120
What happened: The Washington Wizards led entering the fourth quarter but could not snap their losing streak, which grew to 14 after a 121-120 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.
Washington (1-15) led by 16 in the first half and six entering the fourth quarter at United Center. But Chicago (9-7) hung around, taking its first second-half lead with just under five minutes left. The teams traded the lead five times in the fourth quarter.
The Wizards had the ball down one point with 5.5 seconds left. They got the ball to Kyshawn George, who was immediately trapped, fell down and threw a pass out of bounds for a game-sealing turnover.
Corey Kispert made his first start of the year in place of Khris Middleton (right knee injury management on a second half of a back-to-back) and scored a season-high 20 points. Kispert shot 7 for 10 from the field and 3 for 6 from three.
Alex Sarr returned from a two-game absence because of a toe injury. He scored 16 points and had 11 rebounds. But his primary matchup, Chicago center Nikola Vucevic, scored a game-high 28 points.
What mattered: The Wizards stayed competitive against a solid team — something they haven’t been able to say often enough this year. It came in large part because of three-point shooting. Washington shot 16 for 36 (44.4 percent) from deep, while Chicago was 12 for 44 (27.3 percent).
Some of that is luck on both ends — Chicago had many open looks that didn’t fall. But Washington did look more cohesive on the offensive end, getting 33 assists on its 44 made field goals. The Wizards also improved on the glass. After losing the rebound battle by six and giving up 12 second-chance points in the first half, they won it by one and gave up none, respectively, across the last two quarters.
Cam Whitmore notched another strong game. The third-year forward scored 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting. He also had seven rebounds and two assists, all in less than 18 minutes. Whitmore has scored in double figures in six of his past seven games.
Notes: The Wizards were without Middleton, Tre Johnson (left hip flexor soreness), AJ Johnson (right ankle contusion) and Marvin Bagley III (right hip contusion).
Next up:
Tuesday: vs. Atlanta Hawks, 7 p.m. (Monumental Sports Network)
Friday: at Indiana Pacers, 7:30 p.m. (Monumental Sports Network 2)
Monday, Dec. 1: vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 7 p.m. (Monumental Sports Network)
Notes from the first 15 games and news items from that period can be found here.
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