Bradley Beal has been the face and leader of the Wizards since late January when John Wall underwent knee surgery. It was was Beal that stepped up during Wall's absence. Individually, he's played great this season and earned a spot on the All-Star Game roster for the first time in his career. 

However, the Wizards have been constantly up and down, and part of that down swing came on Sunday when Washington suffered a brutal loss to the Knicks. Beal wasn't happy about his team's performance after the game when speaking to reporters, and he projected a dark future for the Wizards if they don't get their act together. Via NBC Sports Washington:

"We're acting like we don't give a damn, honestly. We thought we could just show up and play because they didn't have anything to play for. We just thought it was going to be a cake walk and they just smacked us in the mouth," Beal said.

He went on.

"I'm tired of talking about this s---. It's just the same thing over and over," he said. "Until we do it individually and together collectively, we're going to get our asses kicked in the playoffs. This isn't even remotely acceptable, how we are playing right now."

Beal isn't wrong. The Wizards have lost six of their last 10 games and are quickly falling out of the middle of the pack in the playoff race. If the standings as they currently are were to hold to the end of the season, then the Wizards would be playing the Cavaliers in the first round. Meeting up with a LeBron James team in the first round is never a good thing.

Perhaps Wall returning could help the Wizards, but their constant up-and-down play this season has to be concerning. Even with a healthy Wall, they were prone for bad losses to teams they had no business losing to. That's continued without him.