The Washington Wizards didn’t play Monday or Tuesday, but they woke up Wednesday morning tied for the best record in the Eastern Conference.
At 7-3, the Wizards, the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls all share the East’s best record.
Due to tiebreakers, Washington is technically in third place behind the Heat and Bulls, respectively, although the Wizards have yet to play either team this season.
Philadelphia (8-4) held the top spot Sunday night, but the 76ers lost both games of a back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday.
Only one team in the NBA has a better record than Washington — the 9-1 Golden State Warriors.
The Wizards started 5-1 for the first time since the 2005-06 season. Then, after losing two straight games, Wes Unseld Jr.’s squad had an impressive weekend with a blowout win over Ja Morant’s Memphis Grizzlies on Friday and a 101-94 triumph over the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.
The 7-3 start is only the fourth in franchise history. The first three were 1968-69, 1974-75 and 2014-15.
The 1974-75 team went a franchise-best 60-22 and made it to the NBA Finals before being swept by Golden State.
While the schedule will get more difficult in December — with a brutal road trip against the best teams in the Western Conference — the team’s current 57-win pace is much higher than the 33.5-win total the oddsmakers gave in the preseason.
The Wizards are back in action Wednesday night at Cleveland (7-4).
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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