The Wizards Have a Big Three Now — and They Just Beat the Defending Champs at the Garden

NEW YORK — It's one preseason game. The rotations were experimental, the stars played limited minutes, and nobody is hanging a banner for beating the Knicks in October. But if you're the Washington Wizards, this is exactly the night you drew up on the whiteboard all summer: your brand-new Big Three starts together for the first time, walks into Madison Square Garden against the defending NBA champions, and walks out with a 111-109 win.

The Wizards are a completely reimagined franchise this season — built around Anthony Davis, acquired in a franchise-shaking move earlier this year, paired with Trae Young in the backcourt and the No. 1 overall pick, rookie AJ Dybantsa. On Thursday night, all three shared a starting lineup for the first time. And for one night in October, the most fascinating experiment in the Eastern Conference looked the part.

Let's do the game itself, because it was a good one. Washington came out firing and finished the first quarter up 30-29. The Knicks, though, looked like the champions they are in the second — a 34-27 quarter flipped it into a 63-57 halftime lead for New York. In the third, Washington got the deficit back under control even while trailing by as many as 10. Then came the fourth: a strong 30-25 closing quarter, jump-started by a go-ahead bucket from Will Riley, gave the Wizards the momentum to finish off the champs.

The star of the night — at least on the scoreboard — was Anthony Davis, in his Wizards preseason debut. Sixteen points on 6-of-11 shooting, including two threes, plus seven rebounds, two assists and a block in just 17 minutes. Clean, efficient, unbothered. After a season in which he was limited to 20 games by a string of injuries, this is a player with an enormous amount to play for: the Wizards are widely reported to be unlikely to offer him the max extension he wants, which makes this a contract year for one of the most talented two-way bigs of his generation. Seventeen minutes of work won't decide that negotiation, but it's not a bad opening argument.

Trae Young added 15, knocking down some long threes in his return to the Garden — the building where he's made a career of being the villain. And the rookie, AJ Dybantsa, had the kind of debut that tells you everything about why the Wizards took him first overall. He didn't start out too hot, but there was a nice drive to the hoop in the second quarter, then a slick fast-break assist to Bilal Coulibaly. Eleven points, a few flashes, no fear. That's the whole package.

The fourth quarter belonged to the bench mob, though. Will Riley's go-ahead bucket kicked off the closing run — the kind of moment a young player remembers for a long time, and the kind of contribution that matters when a team is still sorting out who finishes games. On a night built around the Big Three, it was the supporting cast that actually slammed the door on the champions.

On the other side, the Knicks will sleep fine. Jalen Brunson and Landry Shamet each scored 13 to lead New York, with Brunson shooting 6-of-12 in just over 20 minutes. Karl-Anthony Towns added 8 points and 7 boards in under 19 minutes; Mikal Bridges managed just 2 points on 1-of-6 shooting. This was a tune-up for the defending champions, nothing more — nobody in a Knicks uniform is losing sleep over a two-point preseason loss. Still: the Garden is the Garden, and the Wizards had to take this one from them.

Now the necessary grounding, because the Ticket desk doesn't do preseason hype without the caveat. It is October. The Knicks rested their rotation in the second half, the Wizards' lineups were experimental all night, and one win against a team that has its eyes on April means precisely nothing in the standings. The last thing anyone should do with this game is pencil Washington into the East's top four.

But direction matters, and this was a statement of direction. The Wizards have been wandering in the basketball wilderness for years — the league's most reliable mid-April vacation plan. Now they've got a two-way monster in a contract year, a point guard who bends defenses, a No. 1 pick who doesn't look scared, and a supporting cast full of young guys who can close a game at MSG. The fit questions are real — does Trae defend enough for a contender, does Davis stay healthy, how fast does Dybantsa grow up? — but the talent questions answered themselves on Thursday.

Around the league, it was a loud night for preseason basketball. The Nets went into Barclays Center and beat the 76ers 114-108, spoiling what was billed as a super-team debut — LeBron James in a Sixers uniform and all — behind Moritz Wagner's big night. And in Philadelphia, the injury news keeps getting darker: the Sixers are already down a center for the season after Achilles surgery. Around this new-look East, everyone is one bad night away from the story changing.

For Washington, the schedule keeps moving. The Wizards are back at it Saturday night, hosting the Detroit Pistons at 7 PM ET. Two preseason games, one week, and a whole lot of questions the Wizards haven't been interesting enough to ask in years. That last part is the real news.

For more of the nightly picture, catch up on yesterday's NBA roundup and our 2026-27 season preview — and check the sports hub for scores as they go final.