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2022 was the year many people decided the coronavirus pandemic had ended.

President Joe Biden said as much in an interview with 60 Minutes in September. “The pandemic is over,” he said while strolling around the Detroit Auto Show. “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”

His evidence? “No one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.”

But the week Biden’s remarks aired, about 360 people were still dying each day from COVID-19 in the United States. Globally, about 10,000 deaths were recorded every week. That’s “10,000 too many, when most of these deaths could be prevented,” the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news briefing at the time. Then, of course, there are the millions who are still dealing with lingering symptoms long after an infection.
Those staggering numbers have stopped alarming people, maybe because those stats came on the heels of two years of mind-boggling death counts (SN Online: 5/18/22). Indifference to the mounting death toll may reflect pandemic fatigue that settled deep within the public psyche, leaving many feeling over and done with safety precautions.

“We didn’t warn people about fatigue,” says Theresa Chapple-McGruder, an epidemiologist in the Chicago area. “We didn’t warn people about the fact that pandemics can last long and that we still need people to be willing to care about yourselves, your neighbors, your community.”

Public health agencies around the world, including in Singapore and the United Kingdom, reinforced the idea that we could “return to normal” by learning to “live with COVID.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines raised the threshold for case counts that would trigger masking (SN Online: 3/3/22). The agency also shortened suggested isolation times for infected people to five days, even though most people still test positive for the virus and are potentially infectious to others for several days longer (SN Online: 8/19/22).

The shifting guidelines bred confusion and put the onus for deciding when to mask, test and stay home on individuals. In essence, the strategy shifted from public health — protecting your community — to individual health — protecting yourself.
Doing your part can be exhausting, says Eric Kennedy, a sociologist specializing in disaster management at York University in Toronto. “Public health is saying, ‘Hey, you have to make the right choices every single moment of your life.’ Of course, people are going to get tired with that.”

Doing the right thing — from getting vaccinated to wearing masks indoors — didn’t always feel like it paid off on a personal level. As good as the vaccines are at keeping people from becoming severely ill or dying of COVID-19, they were not as effective at protecting against infection. This year, many people who tried hard to make safe choices and had avoided COVID-19 got infected by wily omicron variants (SN Online: 4/22/22). People sometimes got reinfected — some more than once (SN: 7/16/22 & 7/30/22, p. 8).
Those infections may have contributed to a sense of futility. “Like, ‘I did my best. And even with all of that work, I still got it. So why should I try?’ ” says Kennedy, head of a Canadian project monitoring the sociological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Getting vaccinated, masking and getting drugs or antibody treatments can reduce the severity of infection and may cut the chances of infecting others. “We should have been talking about this as a community health issue and not a personal health issue,” Chapple-McGruder says. “We also don’t talk about the fact that our uptake [of these tools] is nowhere near what we need” to avoid the hundreds of daily deaths.

A lack of data about how widely the coronavirus is still circulating makes it difficult to say whether the pandemic is ending. In the United States, the influx of home tests was “a blessing and a curse,” says Beth Blauer, data lead for the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The tests gave an instant readout that told people whether they were infected and should isolate. But because those results were rarely reported to public health officials, true numbers of cases became difficult to gauge, creating a big data gap (SN Online: 5/27/22).
The flow of COVID-19 data from many state and local agencies also slowed to a trickle. In October, even the CDC began reporting cases and deaths weekly instead of daily. Altogether, undercounting of the coronavirus’s reach became worse than ever.

“We’re being told, ‘it’s up to you now to decide what to do,’ ” Blauer says, “but the data is not in place to be able to inform real-time decision making.”

With COVID-19 fatigue so widespread, businesses, governments and other institutions have to find ways to step up and do their part, Kennedy says. For instance, requiring better ventilation and filtration in public buildings could clean up indoor air and reduce the chance of spreading many respiratory infections, along with COVID-19. That’s a behind-the-scenes intervention that individuals don’t have to waste mental energy worrying about, he says.

The bottom line: People may have stopped worrying about COVID-19, but the virus isn’t done with us yet. “We have spent two-and-a-half years in a long, dark tunnel, and we are just beginning to glimpse the light at the end of that tunnel. But it is still a long way off,” WHO’s Tedros said. “The tunnel is still dark, with many obstacles that could trip us up if we don’t take care.” If the virus makes a resurgence, will we see it coming and will we have the energy to combat it again?

A group at the National Bureau of Standards at B­oulder, Colo., now reports an extremely accurate [speed of light] measurement using the wavelength and frequency of a helium-neon laser.… The result gives the speed of light as 299,792.4562 kilometers per second.

Update
That 1972 experiment measured the two-way speed of light, or the average speed of photons that traveled from their source to a reflective surface and back. The result, which still holds up, helped scientists redefine the standard length of the meter (SN: 10/22/83, p. 263). But they weren’t done putting light through its paces. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, photons set a record for slowest measured speed of light at 17 meters per second and froze in their tracks for one-thousandth of a second (SN: 1/27/01, p. 52). For all that success, one major hurdle remains: directly testing the one-way speed of light. The measurement, which many scientists say is impossible to make, could resolve the long-standing question of whether the speed of light is uniform in all directions.

Some immune defenses of the brain may have their roots in the gut.

A new study in mice finds that immune cells are first trained in the gut to recognize and launch attacks on pathogens, and then migrate to the brain’s surface to protect it, researchers report online November 4 in Nature. These cells were also found in surgically removed parts of human brains.

Every minute, around 750 milliliters of blood flow through the brain, giving bacteria, viruses or other blood-borne pathogens an opportunity to infect the organ. For the most part, the invaders are kept out by three membrane layers, called the meninges, which wrap around the brain and spinal cord and act as a physical barrier. If a pathogen does manage to breach that barrier, the researchers say, the immune cells trained in the gut are ready to attack by producing a battalion of antibodies.

The most common route for a pathogen to end up in the bloodstream is from the gut. “So, it makes perfect sense for these [immune cells] to be educated, trained and selected to recognize things that are present in the gut,” says Menna Clatworthy, an immunologist at the University of Cambridge.

Clatworthy’s team found antibody-producing plasma cells in the leathery meninges, which lie between the brain and skull, in both mice and humans. These immune cells produced a class of antibodies called immunoglobulin A, or IgA.

These cells and antibodies are mainly found in the inner lining of the gut and lungs, so the scientists wondered if the cells on the brain had any link to the gut. It turned out that there was: Germ-free mice, which had no microbes in their guts, didn’t have any plasma cells in their meninges either. However, when bacteria from the poop of other mice and humans were transplanted into the mice’s intestines, their gut microbiomes were restored, and the plasma cells then appeared in the meninges.

“This was a powerful demonstration of how important the gut could be at determining what is found in the meninges,” Clatworthy says.

Researchers captured microscope images of an attack in the meninges of mice that was led by plasma cells that had likely been trained in the guts. When the team implanted a pathogenic fungus, commonly found in the intestine, into the mice’s bloodstream, the fungus attempted to enter the brain through the walls of blood vessels in the meninges. However, plasma cells in the membranes formed a mesh made of IgA antibodies around the pathogen, blocking its entry. The plasma cells are found along the blood vessels, Clatworthy says, where they can quickly launch an attack on pathogens.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has shown the presence of plasma cells in the meninges. The study has rewritten the paradigm of what we know about these plasma cells and how they play a critical role in keeping our brain healthy,” says Matthew Hepworth, an immunologist at the University of Manchester in England who was not involved with the study. More research is needed to classify how many of the plasma cells in the meninges come from the gut, he says.

The finding adds to growing evidence that gut microbes can play a role in brain diseases. A previous study, for instance, suggested that in mice, boosting a specific gut bacterium could help fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a fatal neurological disease that results in paralysis (SN: 7/22/19). And while the new study found the plasma cells in the brains of healthy mice, previous research has found other gut-trained cells in the brains of mice with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the brain and the spinal cord.

For now, the researchers want to understand what cues plasma cells follow in the guts to know it is time for them to embark on a journey to the brain.

It’s official: 2020 now has the most named storms ever recorded in the Atlantic in a single year.

On November 9, a tropical disturbance brewing in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean gained enough strength to become a subtropical storm. With that, Theta became the year’s 29th named storm, topping the 28 that formed in 2005.

With maximum sustained winds near 110 kilometers per hour as of November 10, Theta is expected to churn over the open ocean for several days. It’s too early to predict Theta’s ultimate strength and trajectory, but forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say they expect the storm to weaken later in the week.

If so, like most of the storms this year, Theta likely won’t become a major hurricane. That track record might be the most surprising thing about this season — there’s been a record-breaking number of storms, but overall they’ve been relatively weak. Only five — Laura, Teddy, Delta, Epsilon and Eta — have become major hurricanes with winds topping 178 kilometers per hour, although only Laura and Eta made landfall near the peak of their strength as Category 4 storms.

Even so, the 2020 hurricane season started fast, with the first nine storms arriving earlier than ever before (SN: 9/7/20). And the season has turned out to be the most active since naming began in 1953, thanks to warmer-than-usual water in the Atlantic and the arrival of La Niña, a regularly-occurring period of cooling in the Pacific, which affects winds in the Atlantic and helps hurricanes form (SN: 9/21/19). If a swirling storm reaches wind speeds of 63 kilometers per hour, it gets a name from a list of 21 predetermined names. When that list runs out, the storm gets a Greek letter.

While the wind patterns and warm Atlantic water temperatures set the stage for the string of storms, it’s unclear if climate change is playing a role in the number of storms. As the climate warms, though, you would expect to see more of the destructive, high-category storms, says Kerry Emanuel, an atmospheric scientist at MIT. “And this year is not a poster child for that.” So far, no storm in 2020 has been stronger than a Category 4. The 2005 season had multiple Category 5 storms, including Hurricane Katrina (SN: 12/20/05).

There’s a lot amount of energy in the ocean and atmosphere this year, including the unusually warm water, says Emanuel. “The fuel supply could make a much stronger storm than we’ve seen,” says Emanuel, “so the question is: What prevents a lot of storms from living up to their potential?”
A major factor is wind shear, a change in the speed or direction of wind at different altitudes. Wind shear “doesn’t seem to have stopped a lot of storms from forming this year,” Emanuel says, “but it inhibits them from getting too intense.” Hurricanes can also create their own wind shear, so when multiple hurricanes form in close proximity, they can weaken each other, Emanuel says. And at times this year, several storms did occupy the Atlantic simultaneously — on September 14, five storms swirled at once.

It’s not clear if seeing hurricane season run into the Greek alphabet is a “new normal,” says Emanuel. The historical record, especially before the 1950s is spotty, he says, so it’s hard to put this year’s record-setting season into context. It’s possible that there were just as many storms before naming began in the ‘50s, but that only the big, destructive ones were recorded or noticed. Now, of course, forecasters have the technology to detect all of them, “so I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about this season,” Emanuel says.

Some experts are hesitant to even use the term “new normal.”

“People talk about the ‘new normal,’ and I don’t think that is a good phrase,” says James Done, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “It implies some new stable state. We’re certainly not in a stable state — things are always changing.”

Mystery mummies from Central Asia have a surprising ancestry. These people, who displayed facial characteristics suggesting a European heritage, belonged to a local population with ancient Asian roots, a new study finds. Until now, researchers had pegged the mummified Bronze Age bunch as newcomers and debated about where in West Asia they originally came from.

Desert heat naturally mummified hundreds of bodies buried in western China’s Tarim Basin from roughly 4,000 to 1,800 years ago. Preserved remains of these people have been excavated since the 1990s (SN: 2/25/95). Those interred around 4,000 years ago belonged to the Xiaohe culture, a population that mixed animal herding with plant cultivation. Their boat-shaped coffins were unlike any others in the region. And preserved cheese, wheat, millet and clothes made from western Eurasian wool found in Xiaohe graves pointed to distant contacts or origins.

Archaeogeneticist Yinqiu Cui of Jilin University in Changchun, China, and an international team analyzed DNA from 13 Tarim Basin mummies from roughly 4,100 to 3,700 years ago and five other human mummies from the nearby Dzungarian Basin from around 5,000 to 4,800 years ago.
Tarim people displayed Asian ancestry mainly traceable to hunter-gatherers who inhabited much of northern Eurasia more than 9,000 years ago. That finding suggests that the mummies belonged to a population that did not mate with outsiders for many millennia, the researchers report October 27 in Nature. No DNA links were found to western Eurasian herders from the Afanasievo culture (SN: 11/15/17), who some researchers have regarded as precursors of Xiaohe people.

A predominantly Afanasievo ancestry did appear in the Dzungarian individuals. Milk proteins found in dental tartar from seven Tarim mummies indicated that those people regularly consumed dairy products, a practice possibly learned from Afanasievo descendants in the Dzungarian Basin, the researchers say.

The Perseverance rover has captured its first two slices of Mars.

NASA’s latest Mars rover drilled into a flat rock nicknamed Rochette on September 1 and filled a roughly finger-sized tube with stone. The sample is the first ever destined to be sent back to Earth for further study. On September 7, the rover snagged a second sample from the same rock. Both are now stored in airtight tubes inside the rover’s body.

Getting pairs of samples from every rock it drills is “a little bit of an insurance policy,” says deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif. It means the rover can drop identical stores of samples in two different places, boosting chances that a future mission will be able to pick up at least one set.

The successful drilling is a comeback story for Perseverance. The rover’s first attempt to take a bit of Mars ended with the sample crumbling to dust, leaving an empty tube (SN: 8/19/21). Scientists think that rock was too soft to hold up to the drill.
Nevertheless, the rover persevered.

“Even though some of its rocks are not, Mars is hard,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, in a September 10 news briefing.

Rochette is a hard rock that appears to have been less severely eroded by millennia of Martian weather (SN: 7/14/20). (Fun fact: All the rocks Perseverance drills into will get names related to national parks; the region on Mars the rover is now exploring is called Mercantour, so the name Rochette — or “Little Rock” — comes from a village in France near Mercantour National Park.)

Rover measurements of the rock’s texture and chemistry suggests that it’s made of basalt and may have been part of an ancient lava flow. That’s useful because volcanic rocks preserve their ages well, Stack Morgan says. When scientists on Earth get their hands on the sample, they’ll be able to use the concentrations of certain elements and isotopes to figure out exactly how old the rock is — something that’s never been done for a pristine Martian rock.

Rochette also contains salt minerals that probably formed when the rock interacted with water over long time periods. That could suggest groundwater moving through the Martian subsurface, maybe creating habitable environments within the rocks, Stack Morgan says.

“It really feels like this rich treasure trove of information for when we get this sample back,” Stack Morgan says.

Once a future mission brings the rocks back to Earth, scientists can search inside those salts for tiny fluid bubbles that might be trapped there. “That would give us a glimpse of Jezero crater at the time when it was wet and was able to sustain ancient Martian life,” said planetary scientist Yulia Goreva of JPL at the news briefing.

Scientists will have to be patient, though — the earliest any samples will make it back to Earth is 2031. But it’s still a historic milestone, says planetary scientist Meenakshi Wadhwa of Arizona State University in Tempe.

“These represent the beginning of Mars sample return,” said Wadhwa said at the news briefing. “I’ve dreamed of having samples back from Mars to analyze in my lab since I was a graduate student. We’ve talked about Mars sample return for decades. Now it’s starting to actually feel real.”

Those who spent up on Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray will be without their studs as the Chiefs and Cardinals take the week off. Of course, Murray owners are used to that, but hopefully that will change after his bye. This week also features three Thursday games, so your start 'em, sit 'emi decisions will feel a little more rushed. Winning the week starts with deciding who to start at quarterback, and our Week 12 fantasy QB rankings can help you makes those tough start 'em, sit 'em decisions.

We mentioned Murray and Mahomes are out, but season-long stud Matthew Stafford (@ Packers) and popular streaming option Teddy Bridgewater (vs. Chargers) are back in action after their byes. For those Mahomes and Murray owners, we'll admit it's not a very deep week for streamers, but there are just enough options to get by. Again, Murray owners are used to this routine, so they should have a decent backup. 

Stafford, along with Aaron Rodgers (vs. Rams), Justin Herbert (@ Broncos), and Joe Burrow (vs. Steelers), headline the "studs with tough matchups" category, but again, it's not the greatest week for streamers, so they all remain QB1s in our rankings.
The best streamers include Mac Jones (vs. Titans), Cam Newton (@ Dolphins), Trevor Lawrence (vs. Falcons), and Justin Fields (@ Lions). Matt Ryan (@ Jaguars) is over 50-percent owned, but if you consider him a streamer, he's in play, too. Those QBs either play teams that are downright awful against the pass statistically or bottom-dwellers that haven't forced many pass-happy game scripts. So, yes, we're counting on three rookies, a guy who was just signed off the street a few weeks ago, and a boom-or-bust veteran. What else did you expect at this point in the season? Also, he's not a streamer at this point either, but start Carson Wentz (vs. Buccaneers). The matchup and game script should set him up for a nice fantasy day.

On the other side of the start-or-sit bubble, we're out on Ryan Tannehill (@ Patriots), Daniel Jones (vs. Eagles), Tua Tagovailoa (@ Panthers), and Teddy Bridgewater (vs. Chargers). These guys have been mentioned several times by us on the "start" side of the conversation, but the matchups just aren't favorable enough to tout them as viable considerations this week. They're looking at some top defenses against fantasy QBs, so we'd opt to play the guys listed above. If you're forced to start one of the three, Jones has the highest upside because of his rushing ability.

This week isn't quite as disastrous of a week as we thought it could be in the preseason, so you can survive. This is the last week with two elite fantasy QBs out of commission, so there should be less competition for streamers going forward. Still, you have to stay on top of everything. We saw last Sunday with Lamar Jackson's surprise scratch that injuries and illnesses can strike with little warning, so always have a plan going into a week.

Note: We'll be updating these QB rankings throughout the week, so check back for the latest player movement and analysis.

Fantasy QB Rankings Week 12: Who to start at quarterback
Rankings are based on standard, four-point passing TD formats.

Rank Player
1 Russell Wilson, SEA @ WAS
2 Josh Allen, BUF @ NO
3 Tom Brady, TB @ IND
4 Lamar Jackson, BAL vs. CLE
5 Dak Prescott, DAL vs. LV
6 Jalen Hurts, PHI @ NYG
7 Matthew Stafford, LAR @ GB
8 Aaron Rodgers, GB vs. LAR
9 Carson Wentz, IND vs. TB
10 Joe Burrow, CIN vs. PIT
11 Justin Herbert, LAC @ DEN
12 Mac Jones, NE vs. TEN
13 Derek Carr, LV @ DAL
14 Cam Newton, CAR @ MIA
15 Kirk Cousins, MIN @ SF
16 Matt Ryan, ATL @ JAX
17 Tyrod Taylor, HOU vs. NYJ
18 Trevor Lawrence, JAX vs. ATL
19 Justin Fields, CHI @ DET
20 Daniel Jones, NYG vs. PHI
21 Jimmy Garoppolo, SF vs. MIN
22 Ryan Tannehill, TEN @ NE
23 Tua Tagovailoa, MIA vs. CAR
24 Teddy Bridgewater, DEN vs. LAC
25 Taylor Heinicke, WAS vs. SEA
26 Baker Mayfield, CLE @ BAL
27 Joe Flacco, NYJ @ HOU
28 Ben Roethlisberger, PIT @ CIN
29 Trevor Siemian, NO vs. BUF
30 Tim Boyle, DET vs. CHI

Terence Crawford will face his toughest challenge yet to retain his WBO welterweight belt.

Crawford has fended off Jose Benavidez Jr., Amir Khan, Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Kell Brook in four defenses of his belt, but on Saturday, the stakes will be raised as he faces Shawn Porter.
Porter has, at various points in his career, held different welterweight belts. He has held the WBC-NABF title, the IBF title and the vacant WBC title in the welterweight class, but Porter has lost three times in his past 10 fights, leading to the loss of the belts.

The winner of this fight will leave Michelob Ultra Arena with a belt, but both are going to be coming away with a good deal of money for the fight. Here's a look at how much each will earn, as well as the fighters' net worth, ahead of the fight.
Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter purse
These two fighters will each be coming away with a comparable payday for Saturday's fight. According to ESPN, Crawford will make upwards of $6 million, while Porter will pocket at least $4 million.

What is Terence Crawford's net worth?
Crawford's unblemished record does not yet accompany the lofty earnings. Celebrity Net Worth reports that Crawford has a net worth of $8 million.

What is Shawn Porter's net worth?
Porter's payday on Saturday will be a boon to his net worth. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Crawford has a net worth of $5 million.
Terence Crawford career record
Nationality: American
Born: Sept. 28, 1987 (34 years old)
Height: 5-8
Reach: 74 inches
Record: 37-0-0 (28 KOs)
Shawn Porter career record
Nationality: American
Born: Oct. 27, 1987 (34 years old)
Height: 5-7
Reach: 69.5 inches
Record: 31-3-1 (17 KOs)
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With his first 3-pointer early in the Bucks home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, All-Star Khris Middleton made franchise history.

He surpassed franchise legend and Hall of Famer Ray Allen for the most 3-pointers in Bucks' regular-season history.
Allen, considered one of the greatest shooters of all-time, set the tally of 1,051 3-pointers in 494 games for the Bucks between 1996 and 2003. He knocked them down at an average of 2.1 per game at an efficiency of 40.6 percent.

On the other hand, Middleton passed Allen's tally in his 566th regular-season game for the Bucks and sits atop the leaderboard with 1,054 career 3-pointers. The 30-year-old is making 1.9 3-pointers per game at a rate of 39.4 percent.
2021 has been considered quite the year for Middleton with this recent record only the cherry on top.

Just days after winning the 2021 championship with the Bucks, Middleton travelled to Tokyo to be part of Team USA's roster that went on to win the Olympic gold medal.

"To break a record like this, any franchise record is amazing," Middleton said postgame.
Both Allen and Middleton were acquired by the Bucks in trades.

Drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the fifth overall pick in the 1996 Draft, Allen and Andrew Lang were traded to the Bucks for the draft rights to fourth pick Stephon Marbury.

Meanwhile, Middleton was acquired by the Bucks in 2013 along with Brandon Knight and Viacheslav Kravtsov from the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Brandon Jennings. The Pistons had drafted Middleton with the 39th overall pick in the 2012 Draft.

The Washington Wizards got out to as good of a start as any team in the NBA, shocking the masses to take first place in the Eastern Conference through the first month of the season.

Following Thursday's loss to the Miami Heat, the Wizards have surrendered their spot atop of the East, failing to pick up a win in one of their toughest tests early on.
They still own a strong 10-5 record and have some quality wins on their resume – they beat both of last year's Conference Finalists in the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics twice, the Toronto Raptors on the road and a blowout win over the Memphis Grizzlies. But along with the loss to the Heat, they also failed tests against the Brooklyn Nets and Charlotte Hornets.

With almost an entirely new roster following the trade that sent Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Wizards pieces have clicked quickly.

Is this team good enough to make the playoffs, though? Three members of our Sporting News staff discuss.
Will the Wizards be a playoff team?
Kyle Irving (@KyleIrv_): I'm a believer. The Wizards will be a playoff team.

Going into the season, I thought this was just a roster of misfit toys. Returning Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the trade for Westbrook and signing Spencer Dinwiddie, they brought in four solid players, but I wasn't convinced it was a group who could make any noise in the improving East.

Turns out, I was very wrong. Yes, they've failed a few tough tests, but they've also beaten some good teams.

Harrell looks like the player who won Sixth Man of the Year back in 2018-19, averaging over 17 points and eight rebounds per game with five double-doubles in 15 games. Kuzma is thriving in a new situation with a bigger role, nearly averaging a double-double, and Dinwiddie has complimented Bradley Beal perfectly in the backcourt.

They also have dealt with a handful of injuries and absences, and their starting forward and former lottery pick Rui Hachimura hasn't even taken the floor yet for personal reasons.

The craziest part is after being one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA last season, new head coach Wes Unseld Jr. has this team ranked in the top-five in the league in defensive rating so far.

There's still a lot of basketball to be played this year, but I don't see why Washington can't maintain this hot start and stay in the playoff picture.
Yash Matange (@yashmatange2694): Despite the loss in Miami, which is now three straight for the Wizards, I believe they are a playoff team.

They might not go too far in the postseason but I believe they could make it to the playoffs by avoiding the Play-In Tournament. I see them finishing behind the Heat, Nets, Bulls, Bucks and maybe the Celtics or Hawks (whichever makes the better recovery after their rough start) in the East standings.

Their depth, acquired as a result of the Westbrook trade this past offseason, is a huge reason why they have done so well. Players from that trade like Harrell (bringing it every night off the bench), Kuzma (high-volume rebounding, small-ball big), Dinwiddie (good complementary guard to Beal), Caldwell-Pope (3-and-D wing) and Aaron Holiday (bench guard) have all played key roles in the team's games so far, especially the wins.
Why I believe the Wizards can carry this form all through the regular season is the play of Beal. While the 2021 All-NBA player is scoring 23.4 (through 11 games) on shooting splits of 41.1 percent from the field and 28.0 from beyond the arc, it's nowhere close to his level from last year when he averaged a near league-high 31.3 points on 48.5 percent shooting from the field and 34.9 percent from beyond the arc.

His slump (if you want to call it that) is on track with a few other superstars finding their way with the new ball and officiating rules. So, I see him bouncing back.

Also, I have to give a huge shoutout to Unseld Jr., a coach with 16 years of experience as an assistant, for making this team with tremendous depth click. Of course, GM Tommy Shepherd as well. Having said that, with the East being top-heavy, I don't see them going too far in the postseason. If everything falls their way in a best-case scenario, it could be a Conference Semifinals appearance. Otherwise, I see them bowing out in the first round.
Nick Metallinos (@NickMetallinos): It’s still early in the season, and I will wait until I’ve seen more to make a final call, but the Wizards' loss to the Heat is another example of coming up short against championship level opponents in 2021-22. I think they're a playoff team, but they won't make any noise when they get there.

As mentioned in the intro, two of the team’s five losses have been against the Nets and Heat, two certified powerhouses in the East.

However, they will continue to be steady throughout the regular season because they are getting contributions evenly from their roster. From Beal to Kuzma to Dinwiddie, they’re getting solid offensive numbers, but once the postseason begins they’re going to need more firepower than that.

Their defense is currently fourth-best in the league in terms of defensive rating, but they will definitely need more offense when teams inevitably focus on slowing down Beal on the road to the playoffs.