The Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets engaged in an epic tank-off Sunday, and that was made quite obvious by the injury report.
Both the Wizards and Nets are essentially playing for draft position, meaning Sunday’s game devolved into a contest of who wanted to lose more. To that end, the pregame injury reports for both teams were abnormally long.
How long? The Wizards ruled ten players out for Sunday’s game, while the Nets did the same with nine of theirs.
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) April 5, 2026
The Wizards only had eight players available, and used just six of them during the first half of the game.
The Washington Wizards only played six players in the first half, not playing Jaden Hardy or Sharife Cooper. They trail the Brooklyn Nets 59-54 at halftime. https://t.co/1mR6RsmzX9
— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) April 5, 2026
However blatant this tanking may be, there is not much the league will likely be able to do about it, since they would have to prove that these players actually could have played. The Wizards are playing on a back-to-back, which does not help matters either.
In the future, NBA commissioner Adam Silver might see this game and be able to arbitrarily do something about it. For now, we have some rough April basketball between two teams that entered play with 35 combined wins between the two of them.
