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Wizards Can Make Bold Cooper Flagg Statement by Being Eliminated From Playoffs Friday

The Wizards can clinch not making the playoffs with a loss or Heat win on Friday.

Stephen Douglas

The Washington Wizards mascot waves a flag in a smokey arena.
The Washington Wizards mascot waves a flag in a smokey arena. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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Cooper Flagg will play in Duke's first round NCAA tournament game on Friday against Mount St. Mary's despite suffering an ankle injury in the ACC tournament. As talking heads debate whether he should play or maybe even return to college for another season, one NBA team has a chance to make their stance on the Duke freshman abundantly clear.

With a loss or Miami Heat victory on Friday, the Washington Wizards will join the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans as one of the first teams eliminated from the NBA postseason picture.

A few hours after Flagg makes his March Madness debut, the Wizards can be officially eliminated by the Orlando Magic. Washington comes into Friday with the worst record in the NBA at 15–53. And that's after they just finished a stretch where they actually won six out of 10 games.

The NBA sent out a very sad reminder of the Wizards situation on Friday morning.

Amazingly, the Wizards are going to finish with a better record this year than they did last year when they went 15–67. With 14 games remaining in the regular season they're not only competing against the Pelicans, Jazz and Hornets for the worst record in the league, but with themselves for one of the worst seasons in Washington's franchise history.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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