Magical Pixels, Wizards vs. Pistons: Maybe just don't let Washington know when it's at .500?

John Wall showed up, but evidently the notion of being above-average is just too much for the rest of the Washington Wizards, who once again fell below .500 with a 104-98 home loss Saturday night against the Detroit Pistons. A thrilling win over the Miami Heat means a whole lot less when you drop home games against teams you should beat (the Pistons entered the game 16-23, and were coming off an embarrassing 110-89 home loss to the Utah Jazz).

Wall nearly carried the Wizards to win by himself, scoring 34 points on an especially-strong shooting night that saw him go 15-of-23 from the field and sink both of his three-point attempts. Don't look now, but Wall is shooting 33 percent from three on the season. Sustainable?

Meanwhile, Bradley Beal had a game he and Wizards fans would love to forget. He scored seven points on an atrocious 2-for-14 shooting night, which included a 1-for-7 mark from three. Trevor Ariza was equally bad, shooting 1-for-7 and finishing with seven points. Nene chipped in with 14 points but didn't make his typical impact defensively, and Marcin Gortat recorded a double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds) and his plus-7 was a team-high. Martell Webster was the only one of Wall's perimeter shooters to have a decent game, as he finished with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting (3-for-5 from three).

Washington will try to get back to .500 yet again with a Monday afternoon tilt against the Philadelphia 76ers.

KEY LINKS

Home team recaps: BF StoryStream | Washington Post | AP | CSN Washington (recap, Wall sidebar, Beal sidebar) | Wiz of Awes | Wizards.com | Monumental Network

Road team recaps: Detroit Bad Boys | Detroit Free Press (gamer, sidebar) | The Detroit News | MLive (gamer, sidebar) | Piston Powered | Life On Dumars | Pistons.com

Game highlights

Postgame interviews: Randy Wittman | John Wall | Bradley Beal | Martell Webster | Trevor Ariza

KEY STATS

14 - Combined shooting percentage of Bradley Beal and Trevor Ariza against the Pistons. Beal shot 2-of-14 (1-of-7 from three), while Ariza went 1-for-7 (1-for-4 from three). Woof.

14 - The Pistons' scoring advantage in the paint, where they outscore the Wizards 52-38.

TWEETS OF THE NIGHT

Tonight, it’s been more like Sadley Beal.

— Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) January 19, 2014

.500 ✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈??

— Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) January 19, 2014

Bradley Beal and Trevor Ariza shot a combined 3 for 21 from the field. #ThatsBad

— Ben M (@BenAgent0) January 19, 2014

The Wizards are going to end up at 41-41, just to mess with #WizardsTwitter emotions

— Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis) January 19, 2014

Bradley Beal: "Someone just needs to not tell us our record." #Wizards

— Conor Dirks (@ConorDDirks) January 19, 2014

VIDEO/GIF OF THE NIGHT

This was almost worth the loss. Almost.

GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

#	Commenter	# Comments
1	Craig_	148
2	Wall_Hopeful	117
3	qthaballa	85
4	elliotlevy2	71
5	Baird15	49
6	DCrez	39
7	Singhgidda	29
8	Yeti60	27
9	richkam14	26
10	Banode	26
11	HSLex	26
12	jayxelo	25
13	DCKRS	24
14	ExtraSpecialBitter	16
15	Alpha_Snail	16
16	SladeKillah	16
17	Mandark	14
18	DCPerspective	12
19	HailSkinz	11
20	Jormond Wall	10
21	tw10	10
22	diplomaniac	10
23	KurisuDevil	9
24	ZonkerBL	8
25	dgackey	7
26	LRJ	6
27	oakhillsteeze	6
28	Tbonebullets	6
29	Perm	5
30	daca	5
31	Jaba	3
32	spanishfalcon	3
33	Zachary Beard	3
34	nesby8	3
35	pwilson319	3
36	17squall	2
37	KeithJH2	2
38	rayallenisaballer	2
39	knight13951	2
40	obeast	1
41	John Wall Stan	1
42	Seat pleasant	1
43	Izzy.Bae	1
44	I Got Munnyz	1
45	PAClark11	1
46	ilintar	1
47	Le Bullet	1
48	makpilot23	1
49	The Hoops Guru	1
50	Rook6980	1
51	thewiz06	1