Wizards’ Anthony Davis after 44-point night: ‘We’re not playing any defense’

Anthony Davis gave the Wizards 44 points Monday. What he wanted afterward was a few more stops.

Returning from a two-game injury absence, Davis finished with 13 rebounds and shot 16-of-21 from the field in Washington’s 122-111 loss to the Pistons. He scored 30 points before halftime, missing just one of his first 11 shots.

The Wizards still lost their third straight game and fell to 4-7.

Asked about what went wrong, Davis had a fairly comprehensive answer.

“Everything, everything, everything,” he told reporters, according to Greg Finberg of Wizards Central, as cited by Siddhant Gupta of Fadeaway World. “We’re not playing any defense… We’re not rebounding. We’re giving up open threes, fouling, and not guarding the ball. Everything.”

Washington surrendered 72 points across the second and third quarters. Add 18 turnovers and 9-of-36 shooting from three, and even a night like Davis’ wasn’t enough.

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff acknowledged Davis’ performance while explaining how Detroit survived it.

“You give him credit, but I thought we did a really good job of making everybody else work for it,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s going to be hard for one guy to beat you.”

That leaves Washington with more to evaluate than its star’s individual production. The Wizards reportedly want to see Davis play 20 to 30 games before revisiting a contract extension⁠. How this group functions around him belongs in that discussion, too.

“We’re a new team. We’re growing and learning,” coach Brian Keefe said. “We just have to build it more consistently.”

There’s time for that. But Davis’ frustration doesn’t require reading anything into his future. The Wizards got an exceptional performance from him and still couldn’t defend well enough to make it count.