TRENDING Yahoo Top 10 Warriors win seventh straight Luka's explosive night LeBron's new reality NFL news, live updates Story by Story by Against Oklahoma City, the Wizards were the bug Kevin Broom · SB Nation Sun, November 8, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC · 3 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oklahoma City Thunder broadcaster Michael Cage summed up this game perfectly: "In this game, sometimes you're the bug, and sometimes you're the windshield." In this one, the Wizards were in the role of the bug.
Washington was no match for the Thunder. Oklahoma City took control early and the Wizards had no answer for their athleticism, execution, and swarming defensive presence.
The Wizards converted just 29.6% of their field goal attempts, including 7-43 from three-point range. That's 16.3%. Which is bad. Very bad.
Positives for the Wizards were scarce. Among them — Alex Sarr grabbed 14 rebounds in 28 minutes. Bub Carrington shot 3-3 from deep. Bilal Coulibaly defended Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pretty well in the first quarter — SGA had two points on o-3 shooting when Coulibaly left the game. He immediately started scoring and finished the game with 30 points and 9 assists.
For Washington, it's a third consecutive loss — their first three-game skid of the season. Before the game, head coach Brian Keefe talked with reporters about the team figuring out their formula for success. The team would be wise not to over-index on this game. It was a bad result, and the team looked awful.
Despite missing Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren (in some order, their second and third best players), OKC is a special case. It's a championship-level team with something to prove. The Wizards need to learn to compete at that level, and the lesson of their last three games is that they're still not close.
That's not the end of world 10 games into the season. But they need to internalize that lesson and do the work to become competitive against high-level opponents.
Kudos to the OKC stadium operations team — when the Wizards starters got introduced, they played Harry Potter theme music. Good job.
The Wizards entered the game with the NBA's second best "in the paint" field goal percentage (62.2%). The Thunder had the NBA's second best defensive paint FG% (holding opponents to just 50.2%). Safe to say OKC won that battle.
In the first quarter, the Wizards ran a pick-and-roll option out of a horns set for AJ Dybantsa. He had a choice of going left or right. It didn't go great — he ended up battling his way into a mid-ranger, which he missed. The set was good, though.
Tre Mann got real minutes for the first time this season. He looked pretty good — quick, aggressive, athletic. I'd like to see more.
Jotted during the second quarter (could have been jotted anytime) — OKC defenders switch HARD.
Another second quarter note — OKC was doubling Trae Young to get the ball out of his hands. The other Wizards weren't able to take make plays, in part because OKC defenders hustled back to their matchups and rotated so perfectly.
I thought maybe the Wizards had a chance of making things respectable — a thought that disappeared when I saw their possession of the second half. It was a pick-and-roll for Kyshawn George, who got caught in no-man's land. The only teammate who cut was Coulibaly, who didn't get free. That should have triggered a cascade of movement, but the other guys stood around until George was forced to take a difficult shot, which he missed.
The Wizards tried a small-ball lineup in the second half. It got shredded by Aday Mara and the Thunder.
Source: Sports
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