Wizards' Kyle Kuzma on brutal loss to Grizzlies: 'We disrespected the game'

Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma came close to admitting that they took the shorthanded Grizzlies lightly on Tuesday night.

On Tuesday night, the moribund Washington Wizards, who entered their clash against the Memphis Grizzlies with an 11-53 record, had a golden chance to claim a rare victory. After all, the Grizzlies, which already were injury-riddled in recent months, were without Jaren Jackson Jr., the last man standing among the team's best players. However, the Wizards did not bring the requisite energy, coming out of the gates with lethargy en route to a 109-97 loss to the shorthanded Grizzlies.

For the Wizards, they are already facing a talent deficit on most nights. Thus, it's rather infuriating for Kyle Kuzma and company when they don't bring in the effort that's required to win ballgames in the NBA, which is what happened in letting the Grizzlies' injury replacements blow them out of the water.

“We disrespected the game. We disrespected ourselves,” Kuzma said, per Josh Robbins of The Athletic.

Perhaps the Wizards came into the game with complacency after seeing the Grizzlies' long injury report. Looking at the roster the Grizzlies fielded on Tuesday, there were many players whose NBA futures are up in the air as Memphis' core players recover from injury next season. Thus, there's a chance that the Wizards thought that they could win even if they go through the motions, which evidently wasn't the case.

“It also just boils down to professionalism and giving a f**k a little bit,” Kuzma added. “And tonight, we just didn’t. Anybody (on the Grizzlies) could go score. Anybody could lay the ball in. We were playing selfish on both ends. Just wasn’t good tonight from all of us.”

This has been the story of the Wizards' season thus far; at this point, no one is expecting them to turn things around given how poorly they have played throughout the campaign. Sure, the Wizards wanted to be bad on purpose after years of mediocrity, but watching them play has been an eye sore.

What makes this loss to the Grizzlies even more unacceptable is the fact that they were coming off a huge win over the Miami Heat. Simply put, Kyle Kuzma and company have to bring the same energy they brought against the Heat every night for them to have a chance to avoid reaching a historic level of putridity.