Kyle Kuzma’s Boneheaded Blunder Precipitated an Epic Wizards Collapse

Kyle Kuzma’s boneheaded mistake allowed the Raptors to play 4-on-5 and eventually beat the Wizards.

The Wizards’ already terrible season reached a new low on Monday night with a brutal loss to the Raptors.

Washington entered the game at 2–7, having lost six of its previous seven games. Midway through the fourth quarter, though, it looked like the Wiz might pick up a long awaited win. A Bilal Coulibaly layup gave Washington a 106–90 lead with 7:25 to play—but then everything fell apart spectacularly. 

A lot went wrong for the Wizards down the stretch, but the worst part was this play with just over five minutes remaining. The ball was deflected and went out of bounds, with possession being awarded to the Raptors. Kyle Kuzma wanted the Wizards to challenge the play and ran down toward the Washington bench to plead with the coaching staff to ask for a replay review. While Kuzma was on the other end of the floor, the Raptors inbounded the ball and scored an easy basket. 

Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma dribbles with the ball as Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes defends during the first quarter at Scotiabank Arena / Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Check this out: 

Kyle Kuzma forgets to play defense and the Raptors realized they had a 5-on-4 advantage, which resulted in Scottie Barnes scoring an easy layup.

The Wizards were up by 10 points with 5:12 remaining and Toronto finished the game on a 14-0 run 😲pic.twitter.com/eVaJPrFp8s

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 14, 2023

The ball did indeed go off of Pascal Siakam’s hand last, so Washington would have won if it challenged the play, but Kuzma‘s blunder allowed the Raptors to score two easy points. 

The Wizards didn’t score another point after Kuzma’s error. In fact, Coulibaly’s layup with 7:25 to play was the team’s last field goal of the night. The only point they scored in the final six minutes of the game was a Kuzma free throw with 5:47 left. 

Toronto ended the game on a 21–1 run and came away with a 111–107 victory to drop the Wizards to 2–8 on the season.