It was the second night of a back-to-back, and the Wizards played like it. Facing a Sacramento Kings team with De’Aaron Fox back in the lineup, Washington took a slender four-point lead into the second quarter and then ran out of gas.
The Kings outscored the Wizards 85-60 in quarters two and three. Washington trimmed the final margin to just 12 with their traditional garbage time rally.
Against Sacramento, the Wizards offense was good. They shot well on twos (54.2%), threes (18-37, 48.6%), and free throws (83.3%), and avoided turnovers . It wasn’t close to enough because their defense seemed predicated on creating paths for Fox to drive to the basket, and for Domantas Sabonis to score inside.