Washington Wizards: How Long Can the Losing Streak Continue?

It's a new season with new pieces in Washington and yet, the results are the same. With an 83-76 home loss to Utah on Saturday, the Wizards have started 0-8 for the second consecutive year. 

While it's highly unlikely that they will lose all 82 games (that's never been done), one can wonder how long the streak will go on.

When looking at the upcoming schedule, it's possible that the losing streak could continue for a few more days. The Wizards play three games in the upcoming week: home against Indiana, at Atlanta and home against Charlotte.

The Pacers lead the league in points allowed, Atlanta plays tough defense and Charlotte already defeated Washington this year. San Antonio, New York, Portland and Miami all await in the following week, so it's not going to be easy for Washington to get wins anytime soon.

If Washington hopes to break the losing streak, the Charlotte game may be the best chance over the next two weeks. Like the Wizards, the Bobcats are a young team who have been traditionally weak over the last few years.

Things in Washington are bad right now. The Wizards are without a doubt the worst team in the NBA. Expectations were high in DC heading into 2012, but were quickly lowered by injuries to big man Nene and point guard John Wall.

Nene has missed the entire year with a foot injury and is still several weeks away from returning. Wall, who the Wizards desperately need to run their offense, has been out with a knee injury. There is no timetable for his return.

Washington is currently the worst offensive team in the league, scoring just over 88 points a game. Output like that is not going to win a lot of professional basketball games. Rookie guard Bradley Beal leads the team in scoring with 11.6 points a game.

There's no question that Wall is severely missed right now. The third-year man has career averages of 16.3 points and 8.2 assists per game.

Defense and rebounding isn't much better for the Wiz, ranking 19th in the league in rebounds (41.3) and 16th in points allowed (96). 

The return of John Wall, whenever that happens, will surely help this team. However, until that time, fans of the Wizards are going to have to endure more losing in the near future.