Pfft. The April Fool’s joke was on the Wizards, who got stomped by a crummy Detroit Pistons that’s tanking. Reminder: the Wizards are still trying to win. They’re still talking about reaching the play-in game.

Yes, the Washington Wizards lost by 29 to a team that wants to lose. Maybe the joke is actually on the fans.

They did it in #SoWizards fashion — nearly everyone played badly. Robin Lopez had the hook working (7-10 from the floor) and blocked 3 shots. Raul Neto was decent off the bench.

Other than that: blech.

Russell Westbrook had another triple-double that tallied to a negative Player Production Average (see below). That’s because he was 1 turnover from an ignominious quadruple-double.

Deni Avdija was more aggressive than his norm — reaching 10 or more field goal attempts for just the fifth time all season. He did grab 10 rebounds (all defensive) but there wasn’t much else to his game.

Rui Hachimura, whose much ballyhooed scoring tear of late is mostly empty calories, was subpar on offense and contributed his usual nearly nothing everywhere else. One of his 2 assists was comical — he tried to attack a triple team, got the ball stripped by a Detroit defender, whereupon it bounced directly to Alex Len, who scored.

Jerome Robinson started and performed poorly once again. He was out of the lineup in the second half.

Of course, to be on the wrong side of a 29-point bludgeoning, it’s not enough for everyone to play bad. The other guys have to play well. The Pistons did their part — nearly everyone had terrific games.

Josh Jackson had 31 points on 21 shots. Mason Plumlee had 11 rebounds and 7 assists.

Depending on your perspective, you could credit Detroit for defending well, or rip the Wizards for being crummy on offense. Probably some of both.

Next up for the Wizards is a trip home for a probable loss to the Dallas Mavericks. After that, it’s six straight on the road.

Four Factors

Below are the four factors that decide who wins and loses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

I’ve simplified them a bit. While the factors are usually presented as percentages, that’s more useful over a full season. In a single game, the raw numbers in each category are easier to understand.

PACE is possessions per 48 minutes.

Player Production Average

Below are Player Production Average (PPA) results from last night’s game. PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, play-making, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls). PPA is a per possession stat that includes accounting for defense and role. In PPA, 100 is average and higher is better.

PPA is a per possession stat. The table below is sorted by each player’s total contributions for the game.

POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.