It feels a little early in the season for desperation to be creeping in, but three games in, the winless Washington Wizards are already feeling the heat.
After dropping their first two contests on the road, the Wizards touted their home opener Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors night as a "must-win" game. So much for that. The Raptors reversed a 12-point first-quarter deficit, blew holes in the Wizards' defense - which now ranks dead last in the NBA - and kept Washington winless.
The Wizards may feel they're better than their record, but that doesn't change the fact that they've dug themselves an early hole, and have yet to prove that they can stop anybody.
"We know we're better than 0-3," shooting guard Bradley Beal said postgame, according to The Washington Post's Candace Buckner. "I feel like we should be 3-0 right now, but we gave up some tough games. The crazy thing is we know what we're doing wrong. It's just a matter of us just doing it."
One thing they could've done better Wednesday was making life more difficult for Raptors shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, who got to his spots without much resistance, baited the Wizards into heaps of fouls, and scored at will on his way to a game-high 40 points.
"Kinda gave him whatever he wanted," said Beal, "and he just took advantage of it."
Beal and backcourt mate John Wall made headlines for all the wrong reasons this summer, as Wall confessed the two have friction, and a "tendency to dislike each other." Chemistry issues are always magnified when a team is losing, and Beal wants to make sure that doesn't happen to this year's Wizards.
"You got to stay together," he said. "We're the only ones who can pull us out of this 0-3 start. Nobody else can do it for us. It's a matter of us staying together as a team because when we drift apart, everything breaks down. Then that's when egos come in; that's when attitudes (come) and everybody drifts away. It's important for us to stay together."
