Wizards’ playoff chances remain slim, but not over

By staying even, the Washington Wizards are losing.

An abominable five-game losing streak has been followed by a five-game winning streak to whisk the Wizards back to the .500 mark. With 12 games to play, they are a still-underachieving 35-35 and remain 1.5 games out of a playoff spot.

During Washington’s five-game winning streak, the two teams it is trying to catch, Chicago and Detroit, have gone on three-game winning streaks. The Wizards don’t play the Bulls again in the regular season. They have one remaining game with Detroit. In other words, Washington has positioned itself to rely on other teams in order to track down the Bulls and Pistons for the thankless position of likely playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.

“The inconsistency just through everything,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman told reporters Monday night. “Guys in the lineup, guys out of the lineup. We got healthy a couple weeks ago, then then Brad [Beal] and Alan [Anderson] go back down again. Our guys understand that’s part of the game, and we’ve tried to fight through that. We’re back at .500 now after losing five in a row, to come back and win five in a row was really important for us.”

The Bulls have 13 games remaining. The Pistons have 11. Here’s the breakdown of what all three teams are looking at during their sprint to the end of the regular season:

• Washington plays against six teams with winning records. Twice it plays Atlanta, which it just beat in Atlanta on Monday night. The Wizards also play at Golden State, at the Los Angeles Clippers, at Detroit, and against Charlotte. All of the sub-. 500 opponents are among the league’s dreks. Phoenix, Brooklyn (twice), Sacramento, the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota are in that group. The Kings are atop this list of have-nots with 27 wins. The Wizards likely need to sweep those paltry opponents, though four of those games are on the road, then split the remaining six games against superior competition to have a chance for the final playoff spot. That would push Washington to 44 wins. Both Chicago and Detroit are on pace for 43 wins.

• Chicago is the eighth seed going into Monday night’s game because it holds the tiebreaker over Detroit. It plays six games against sub-. 500 teams, and seven against teams with winning records. Eight of its remaining games are on the road, where the Bulls are lousy. They are 12-21 away from the United Center.

• Detroit plays seven times at home, but has the most difficult remaining schedule. Nine of its 11 remaining opponents have winning records. The Pistons are 17-24 this season versus teams with winning records.

So, three weeks remain to learn the Wizards’ regular-season fate. At best, they close with a run to sneak into the final playoff spot. At worst, they are jettisoned to the NBA draft lottery, where their chance of having a draft pick is less than one percent. There’s not much to celebrate in either case.