WASHINGTON – This is miserable basketball.

Every time the Washington Wizards step on the court, they face disadvantage.

In experience. In talent. In what is at stake.

And that shows in the results.

The Wizards lost their 13th straight game on Wednesday night. They were overwhelmed once again. They defeated the LA Clippers 121-96 at Capital One Arena.

Even in a season in which the Wizards’ roster and playing time decisions have been carefully crafted to maximize their hopes of winning the crucial draft lottery, they have already reached a tipping point.

“All it takes is one thing to bring it all together,” guard Jordan Poole said. “But moments like that really show who loves the game, who wants to keep working, who wants to keep finding ways to get better, who wants to go to the lab, who wants to watch movies.” So it definitely tests your character, but We have really good people in this locker room.”

It’s true, Washington has really good people in its locker room. But even good people are imperfect. Losing sucks, especially this level of losing. Many teams in NBA history have done what the Wizards do – they played for lottery odds and called it “player development” – and many of those teams have hindered the development of their young players in the process.

Let’s be clear: As they rebuild and fight for the final spot in the league, the Wizards are doing what they need to do to achieve a brighter future. In the NBA, just a team must You must compete for at least one star (preferably two or more stars). The best way for Washington to bring in top-tier talent is through the draft. Even if the Wizards finish with the league’s worst record, it’s still unlikely they’ll win the top pick and have the right to sign Cooper Flagg or Ace Bailey. But having at least the worst record would ensure they wouldn’t get anything worse than the fifth pick.

At 2:15, Washington is where it needs to be. It is the worst record in the league.

Yet this race to the bottom often leads to collateral damage. Can Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly, Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr survive this defeat unscathed and continue to grow?

“To me, we don’t really have a choice,” George said as he sat at his locker after Wednesday’s loss. “It’s too easy to just give up and rely on the people around you. I think we have a great group of people who hold each other accountable. We are all working towards the same goal – the players, the coaching staff and the entire organization. So it’s too easy to just say, ‘Okay, this is it, and we’re not going to get better.'”

The Wizards have installed guard rails. The basketball department tracks players’ individual progress in great detail and meets with each player every 10 and 25 games to see if they are achieving their goals. Hey, it’s not about holding someone accountable in the same way that winning and losing games holds people accountable. But it is something.

There are also real, respected veterans on the team, a group led by 31-year-old Malcolm Brogdon and 32-year-old Jonas Valančiūnas. After Tuesday night’s 127-108 loss to the Chicago Bulls, Brogdon told some of his Wizards teammates something Nate McMillan, his former coach at Indiana, always had to say. When times got tough, McMillan reminded his players that they had to “believe” in themselves and believe they would win soon.

Brogdon tends to pick his spots to impart words of wisdom to younger players. If you do it too often, you run the risk of being blanked out. On Tuesday, however, Brogdon said he had to say something because too often he’s seen the Wizards start games well but hang their heads as soon as an opponent gets going. Then everything snows.

Wednesday was one of those evenings where everything escalated. Washington trailed by 17 at halftime and 33 midway through the fourth quarter. It didn’t help that Kyle Kuzma left the game late in the first quarter with a left rib sprain and didn’t return. Even though Kuzma hasn’t lived up to his standards this season, he is one of the few players on the team who can score himself and take some of the pressure off the young players to perform.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Wizards’ efforts, but some of it is overblown. Yes, there were a few times where the performance was subpar, namely the loss to the New York Knicks on November 18th at Madison Square Garden when the Wizards lost 134-106.

The truth is that coach Brian Keefe is bringing so many young players into the game so hard – so hard at the same time – that it’s unrealistic to expect any level of consistency from the team. Carrington and Sarr are only 19. Coulibaly and George are only 20. They are talented players but also extremely inexperienced. You will make mistakes. On Wednesday night, for example, the trio of Coulibaly, Sarr and George played together for 14 minutes, and in that time the Clippers outscored the Wizards by 23 points.

The concern isn’t just that Washington will lose. It’s about how bad it is to lose. On Wednesday, the Wizards lost by at least 15 points for the 10th time in 15 losses.

“It’s still very, very early, but to encounter so much adversity so early stinks — and hurts,” swingman Corey Kispert said. “It tests the culture that we have put in place, the deposits that we have put in place. But there is still a lot of positivity in the room, and there is also still a lot of encouragement and positivity in the room. Even when things are hard, they are not toxic and not unbearable.”

However, with upcoming games against the Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies, it’s difficult to imagine the Wizards winning any time soon.

This will probably get worse before it gets better.

Poole provided the best perspective of the evening. From 1995 to 2012, the Warriors were a minor player outside of the Bay Area. But when the team brought in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and kept Curry healthy, Golden State ended up winning four NBA titles.

Trying to recruit the next Curry, Thompson or Green is why Washington is rebuilding and enduring so much pain.

“Every organization has to go through hard times to figure out what the good times look like, if that makes sense,” Poole said. “We have to find out. We are building a foundation. We lay pieces. It shouldn’t be easy.”

In other words, the wizards will take their medicine, and that medicine will leave a terrible taste in their mouths. Despite a terrible period and probably even more adversity, can they come out of it with their spirit intact?

(Top photo by Malcolm Brogdon: Reggie Hildred / Imagn Images)