Russell Westbrook to sit out the Wizards’ Dec. 27 game against the Magic

On Sunday, the Washington Wizards announced that Russell Westbrook will sit out tonight’s game against the Orlando Magic to rest.

Based on what head coach Scott Brooks has said before the season, the Wizards want to rest Westbrook when they are playing back-to-backs, and also because the point guard is 32 years old. He’s at the end of his prime.

That said, the Wizards are already in free fall.

Washington is 0-2 in the regular season, lost both of their games thanks to bad fourth quarters despite holding leads at some point. While Westbrook hasn’t been shooting particularly well (36.6 percent from the field), he is still averaging 18 points, 13 rebounds and 13.5 assists per game.

And if that weren’t enough, they haven’t beat Orlando since the 2018-19 season. That’s right, Washington was swept by Orlando last season. If anything, Westbrook’s absence will probably mean that Brooks is fine heading into Tuesday’s two-game series against the Chicago Bulls with a 0-3 start.

After Raul Neto’s inexcusable absence in the second half of yesterday’s game, maybe he’ll get some more time. He did keep the Wizards in yesterday’s game and they can certainly use him once again tonight.

I’m not optimistic about Washington’s chances of a win for tonight’s game at 7 p.m. ET, but you never know.