The Washington Wizards have been one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams this year, but their New Year’s trip out west hasn’t been welcoming for Paul Pierce and Co.

After topping the Houston Rockets 104-103 to begin a five-game stretch against some of the best competition the Western Conference has to offer, the Wiz have now dropped three straight, including a 109-102 defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder and a 101-92 defeat to the San Antonio Spurs to begin the New Year.

Washington Wizards v San Antonio Spurs

The Truth totaled just 37 minutes on the floor through the weekend back-to-back, as strong play by his backups allowed for the veteran to grab some much needed rest as the third month of the season begins.

Washington Wizards v Oklahoma City Thunder

“Whoever is playing well at the time will get those minutes,” said point guard John Wall. “You never know what night your name is going to be called and I think with this team our guys are ready. They work hard everyday and they prepare themselves like they’re going to play.”

In Friday night’s game against the Thunder, Paul put up 12 points, three rebounds and an assist, then he followed that strong performance with five points, a rebound and an assist in the encore against the Spurs. In each game, the backup small forward — Rasual Butler against the Thunder, Otto Porter against the Spurs — picked up 11 points while relieving No. 34.

Though the losses came against the last two teams to win the Western Conference, the Wizards were not pleased with the results. They hoped to win at least three games during this road trip to help solidify their status as an elite team that can handle the West heavyweights, and while they didn’t look completely out of their league, the Wizards showed they still have some growth left to accomplish.

Star shooting guard Bradley Beal explained Friday night that the Wizards took the loss to the Thunder especially hard.

“We should have won the game man, honestly, I’m not even going to sugar-coat it,” Beal said. “I just feel like we gave one away. Yeah, they made some tough shots but we had the game in control. We had it in our hands and we just had to go out and take it, and they took it from us. We’ve got to give credit where it’s due, but I think 100 percent, we should have won the game.”

The Wizards seemed to be in control of the game through the entire third quarter, particularly because star Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook sat out for much of it with four fouls. With just more than a minute left in the period, Washington maintained an 82-74 lead. However, in the final 1:05 of the quarter, the Thunder reeled off an 8-0 run highlighted by back-to-back threes by Kevin Durant, and the game was tied heading to the fourth.

With all the momentum in the world on a home court, the Thunder took command of the game in the fourth period.

Paul re-entered the game with Washington down by five and 3:23 left on the clock. Forced to guard an on-fire Durant, Paul quickly picked up his fifth foul and soon the Wizards were down by eight.

Washington Wizards v Oklahoma City Thunder

They weren’t done yet, however. Wall found Marcin Gortat for a dunk to bring the deficit to six, then The Truth grabbed a defensive rebound and made a beauty of an outlet pass to Wall, who immediately found Beal for an open three in transition. That second sequence took just six seconds and brought Washington back to within three.

A poor pass by Wall gave the Thunder an easy basket and a five-point lead with 22 seconds to go. This forced the Wiz into desperation basketball. For D.C., the late shots didn’t fall, and OKC closed out the win at the line.

After another close loss on Saturday night, Wizards Head Coach Randy Wittman mentioned a lack of practice time on the road as one of the issues preventing Washington from making adjustments.

“In this stretch, we’ve lost a couple of things from a defensive standpoint that we’ve got to get back, in terms of helping one another, and we just haven’t had enough practice time to clean it up yet,” Wittman said. “We’ve got to get those things back. In a game like this when it’s tight, those little breakdowns kill you, and we had too many of those tonight. This team will make you pay when you make a mistake like that.”

Both Wittman and No. 34 have quickly attributed the team’s losses to its defensive struggles throughout the season, and particularly in recent games. Against OKC, No. 34 was tasked with checking Durant, and the following night, The Truth was lined up against Marco Belinelli, a speedy, 28-year-old wing player who Paul managed to hold to just 4-of-11 shooting for the evening.

Likely knowing he wouldn’t reach the 20-minute plateau Saturday night, as a 37-year-old in the second game of a second back-to-back in less than a week, Paul came out aggressive against the Spurs.

Washington Wizards v San Antonio Spurs

The Wiz shot 66.7 percent from the floor and amassed 35 points in the first. Paul had just three of those: a trifecta that brought the Wizards within one, 17-18, amid a scorching start for both squads. On the next possession a Wall layup gave Washington its first lead of the game.

The star point guard totaled 11 points in the first, and the Wiz carried a 35-31 lead into the second frame.

No. 34 got just under eight minutes of action in the first quarter against the Spurs, then sat out the remainder of the first half. He started the second half and played the first nine minutes, then stayed on the bench for the rest of the game, as second-year small forward Porter played the entire final period. Butler also received some time in the fourth quarter, primarily playing power forward in a small lineup.

The game was tied at the break, and the Spurs led by just one, 78-77, going into the final quarter. However, the savvy San Antonio squad used some staunch defense to salt away the win.

With Paul watching from the bench, Washington shot just 26.1 percent in the final frame, and Belinelli’s eight points led the way to a Spurs win.

NEXT UP

The five-game road trip mercifully comes to an end for the Wizards (22-11) on Monday, as they wrap up with a showdown against the 17-16 New Orleans Pelicans.

Washington played the Pelicans in D.C. on Nov. 29, when the Wizards pulled out an 83-80 win thanks to a big night from Marcin Gortat. Paul had himself a phenomenal game on the defensive side of the ball that night, with two of his three blocks coming against Pelicans forward Tyreke Evans. Evans, who is averaging 16.8 points per game this season, was held to just four points on 2-of-15 shooting against The Truth.

This game will be played on the Pelicans home court and New Orleans is coming off a 111-83 rout of the Houston Rockets, so the Wizards have to be prepared for a battle if they want to end the road trip on a positive note.

The game is set to tip off at 8 p.m. ET and will be shown nationally on NBATV.

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