New Orleans Pelicans Rout Wizards 138-118, Extend DC Skid

The New Orleans Pelicans dismantled the Washington Wizards 138-118 on Sunday night at Smoothie King Center, handing Washington its eighth consecutive defeat. Trey Murphy III led New Orleans with 24 points while Saddiq Bey delivered 23 against his former club, giving the Pelicans a dominant wire-to-wire performance that underscored just how wide the gap has grown between a team trending upward and one mired in a prolonged collapse.

The margin — 20 points — was never really in doubt. New Orleans spread the floor, pushed pace, and made Washington pay at nearly every turn, finishing with a scoring total that ranked among their highest outputs of the season.

Washington’s Eight-Game Skid Reaches a Troubling Depth

The Wizards have now dropped eight straight games, a stretch that has steadily drained any optimism that surrounded the franchise’s recent roster additions. Washington entered Sunday with legitimate intrigue — Trae Young was suiting up for just his second game since arriving via trade from Atlanta — yet the evening produced more questions than answers about the team’s immediate path forward.

Young finished with 17 points and eight assists in 18 minutes on the floor. Those numbers look reasonable in isolation, but the context matters: Washington’s offense never found a coherent rhythm, and the Pelicans’ defensive scheme — switching aggressively on ball screens and loading up the paint — forced Young into quick decisions he wasn’t always ready to make in his second outing with a new group. Breaking down the advanced metrics from this stretch, Washington’s net rating over the eight-game skid suggests a team struggling on both ends simultaneously, not simply a squad dealing with a rough offensive patch.

Wizards rookie Tre Johnson scored 20 points Sunday, his fourth time reaching that total this season. Johnson’s production is a genuine bright spot inside what has been a brutal month for the franchise, and his ability to create his own shot at the NBA level is not something Washington’s front office brass should overlook when assessing the rebuild’s timeline.

How Did Trey Murphy III and Saddiq Bey Carry New Orleans?

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Trey Murphy III’s 24-point performance was built on the kind of off-ball movement and catch-and-shoot efficiency that makes him one of the more dangerous perimeter scorers in the Eastern Conference. Murphy’s spacing forces defenses to make impossible choices — collapse on the paint or concede open threes — and on Sunday, Washington had no real answer.

Saddiq Bey’s 23-point night carried an added layer of narrative weight, coming against the Wizards, the franchise that drafted him and where he spent his formative NBA seasons. Bey’s performance against Washington was crisp and efficient, the kind of showing a player circles on the calendar months in advance. The numbers reveal a pattern for Bey this season: he has been at his most assertive when given clear spacing and a defined role within New Orleans’ half-court sets, and Sunday offered both in abundance.

Together, Murphy and Bey combined for 47 points on a night when the Pelicans didn’t need their full complement of weapons to win convincingly. That depth of scoring — spread across multiple contributors rather than funneled through one star — is what separates a functional NBA roster from a one-man operation. New Orleans, for stretches of this season, has looked like the former.

New Orleans Pelicans’ Offensive Output by the Numbers

New Orleans posted 138 points Sunday, a total that reflects both the Pelicans’ offensive capability and Washington’s deteriorating defensive structure. The Wizards allowed the Pelicans to reach that mark while surrendering 118 at the other end — a net margin that, over a full season, would project to one of the worst defensive ratings in the league.

For the Pelicans, the win arrived at a moment when consistency matters enormously. The team has navigated a difficult season shaped by injuries to key contributors, and performances like Sunday’s — balanced, efficient, and controlled — represent exactly the kind of evidence a coaching staff needs when making the case for a late-season push. The numbers suggest New Orleans is capable of genuinely elite offensive nights; the question, based on available data from their full body of work, is whether they can sustain that level across back-to-back games and tougher defensive opponents.

Washington’s defensive rating during the eight-game losing streak has been punishing for the franchise to absorb. Opponents have consistently found open looks from three, driven uncontested to the rim, and converted at a rate that suggests structural breakdowns rather than simple execution errors. A counterargument exists — the Wizards are young and rebuilding, and losing streaks are an expected feature of that process — but eight consecutive defeats still carries a psychological weight that veteran coaches work hard to manage.

Key Developments From Sunday’s Game

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• Trae Young played only 18 minutes in his second game as a Wizard after being traded from Atlanta, limiting his impact despite posting 17 points and eight assists.
• Tre Johnson’s 20-point performance was his fourth time reaching that scoring threshold this season, establishing him as one of Washington’s most consistent offensive contributors during the losing streak.
• Saddiq Bey’s 23 points came against the franchise that originally drafted him, adding a personal storyline to what was otherwise a routine Pelicans victory.
• Washington’s eight-game losing streak is its longest of the 2025-26 NBA regular season, deepening concerns about the team’s defensive structure and roster cohesion.
• The Pelicans’ 138-point total reflected a pace-and-space approach that exploited Washington’s inability to protect the paint and contest perimeter shots simultaneously.

What New Orleans Pelicans Need to Build On From Here

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green and his staff will draw genuine encouragement from Sunday’s performance, particularly the balanced scoring and the team’s ability to sustain pressure across four quarters against a depleted opponent. Wins like this one serve a practical function: they build habits, reinforce rotations, and give role players like Murphy and Bey the confidence that comes only from productive nights on a big stage.

The Pelicans’ depth chart has been reshuffled repeatedly this season due to injuries, and the emergence of Murphy as a primary scoring option carries real implications for the team’s playoff seeding strategy and salary cap planning heading into the offseason. A player who can consistently deliver 20-plus points while functioning within a team concept — rather than demanding the ball in isolation — is an asset that front offices across the league covet. New Orleans has that in Murphy, and Sunday was another data point in a growing file.

Washington, meanwhile, faces a longer road. The Trae Young acquisition signals an intent to compete sooner rather than later, but eight straight losses — including a 20-point defeat at home against a Pelicans squad that wasn’t even at full strength — suggests the roster around Young needs significant reinforcement before that ambition becomes realistic. The draft strategy analysis for Washington this summer will be fascinating to watch, particularly if the losing streak continues to affect their lottery positioning.