The Washington Wizards returned to D.C. with the stench of an active five-game losing streak exuding off of their jerseys, as in-need of a change to their tired formula as they've been all throughout their early collapse to 4-8.

Head coach Brian Keefe knew it, and sensed some level of urgency with the Detroit Pistons, one of the squads to whom the Wizards had already fallen this week, tailing the team back to Washington in embarking on their own road trip. He promised rotational adjustments, and actually produced some slight changes in how he staggered the starters peppering his jumbled starting lineup.

One portion of the lineup that didn't see many tweaks in utilization, conversely, were the second-stringers. Keefe continues limiting his regularly-trusted bench hands to Tre Johnson, Bilal Coulibaly, Deandre Ayton and Bub Carrington- at one point deploying all four at once alongside Trae Young to predictably-poor results- and that combination of players produced another collective dud against these same Pistons. Mere days after those reserves combined for three buckets apiece in Detroit, they cost Washington big in a double-overtime pinch.

Louder Statlines Producing Familiar Consistency

A quick scan of the scoring column would imply that this game offered improvements on this front compared to the Wizards' Detroit visit. Coulibaly actually suited up this time after his brief period of injury management, while fellow minute-collector Johnson stacked 13 points. They each earned even more burn over the pair of overtime periods over Carrington and Ayton, and kept on playing when Anthony Davis and Kyshawn George succumbed to their respective foul trouble.

Unfortunately, the eighth and ninth men didn't do much to make that the most competitive boat race. Carrington shot 1/6 in yet another low-impact performance, while Ayton, less-dynamic than the hot-shooting big-man combination of Davis and Alex Sarr, was capped at under nine minutes. As helpful as his rebounding can be, Washington needed some more meaningful floor-spacers in their attempt at beating the Pistons from outside.

Johnson and Coulibaly, meanwhile, did little to impress the Washington crowd in collectively-shooting 7/19 from the floor. Coulibaly's energy under the rim was appreciated just as much as Johnson's threat of the outside jumper, but they each racked up box score +/- finishes of -20 or more, considerably-higher than that of any of their teammates.

Above all, including Coulibaly's specifically-stagnant lull as a shooter and the more deferentially-scoring depth options, Johnson's slow start to the season has concerned the masses. So long as last summer's top Wizards prospect continues clanging open shots out of the corner pockets and doing little to punish opponents on his trailing opportunities, lineups like the one that Keefe turned to late in the first quarter will only continuing to expose just how few Wizards are presently-capable of creating their own looks.

Now, while Keefe can enjoy a bit of credit for having the wherewithal to bench Ayton and continue feeding Sarr and Davis on the evening of their respective 30+ point performances, he could do Johnson a favor by running a few plays his way, at least trying to free up his struggling spacer outside of waiting for the ball to swing. We saw it with Duncan Robinson on Detroit's side, and at least showing a player that he's encouraged to keep on shooting within a variety of contexts couldn't hurt his confidence.

Will Riley, too, deserves the patience that should be exhibited in young players, and he's gotten considerably-less of it than fellow 2025 NBA Draft classmate Johnson.

The lanky guard checked in for his standard sub-four-minute appearance in the second quarter before finally hitting on a three, just his second of the season. He unquestionably brings something new to the table as another passer with his own positional length to impose, but that instant impact wasn't enough to buy Riley any more minutes over the four time frames that followed.

We know that he remains too raw for Keefe to presently entrust and wield, while Khris Middleton, the other theoretical relief wing, doesn't look physically-capable of contributing at this advanced state in his seasoned career. Tre Mann doesn't play. Nor does Anthony Gill. Keefe is just about out of options to back the starters up with, leaving him to start tinkering with his personnel management to prevent this lengthening leg of losing over the November schedule to come.