AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – If all went as planned, all the Washington Wizards would have had at stake Friday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills was maybe some playoff positioning.

A third straight postseason appearance was deemed a formality at the start of the season for a team with a veteran cast surrounding a couple of young stars in the back court. A top-four seed, 50 wins and the franchise’s first trip to the Eastern Conference finals since 1979 were the chief objectives the organization confidently set when training camp began at Towson University in late September.

The belief continued over the next few months even as the Wizards plunged in the Eastern Conference standings without any sustained signs of playoff vitality. There was always time to fix the problems and recover.

Time expired in a northern suburb of Detroit on Friday night. With a 112-99 loss to the Detroit Pistons, the Wizards were officially eliminated from playoff contention with three games left on their regular season schedule. On the other side, the Pistons, playoff spectators the previous six seasons, sealed a spot in the postseason with their first win over Washington in four tries this season.

“Well, it’s disappointing when you don’t get to where you think you’re capable of getting,” Wizards Coach Randy Wittman said. “It’s disappointing. Like I said, you’ve got to learn from it. It’s a fine line, and I think as a group we have to understand what 82 games means. I don’t think we always take every game like it’s the last one or an important one. And then you get down to the end of the season and you’re really fighting.”

The Wizards can point to several results with regret. There was a home loss to a Los Angeles Lakers team that had lost to the Philadelphia 76ers the night before. There was the two-point home loss to the Toronto Raptors, which ended with John Wall missing two free throws and Cory Joseph hitting the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer. There was the November loss to the Charlotte Hornets in which Washington was outscored 25-2 to end the game, and the February loss to a severely depleted Chicago Bulls team, and the one-point home loss to the Indiana Pacers in March and the debilitating double-overtime home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves a few weeks later. And there were others.

“We lost a lot of games we probably shouldn’t have lost,” Wizards guard Bradley Beal said. “We took a lot of games for granted, and it bit us in the rear end. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.”

After recording 44 and 46 wins, respectively, in the previous two seasons, the best the Wizards can do is 41 victories this season. Nov. 24 will go down as the last day Washington was above the .500 mark. The Wizards were 6-5 then. That was more than 4 1/2 months ago.

Ultimately, defensive shortcomings razed Washington’s season. After ranking in the top 10 in defensive rating each of the past three seasons, including fifth last season, the Wizards are 15th this season. Last season, they ranked second in opponent’s field goal percentage. This season, they rank 26th. Last season, they ranked 14th in opponent’s three-point percentage. This season, they rank tied for 26th.

Score-first point guards and pick-and-roll defense have troubled Washington all season, and the shortcomings were on display Friday as Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson had his way with the Wizards’ defense and finished with a game-high 39 points. Jackson torched the Wizards as Wall watched from the bench. After playing in the team’s first 77 games, Wall missed his second straight because of a sore right knee.

“He couldn’t go. At the end of the day, he has to look out for John,” said Beal, who scored 25 points on 10-for-22 shooting in 41 minutes Friday. “He has to look out for his career. We still had an opportunity to win [Friday] with or without him, so we can’t shift blame that way because it could’ve been either way. He could’ve played and we still could’ve lost. Then what would’ve been our excuse? So he has to look out for himself, and you can’t blame him for it.”

The Wizards did not wilt without Wall. After falling behind by 19 points in the second quarter and 16 in the third, Washington battled back behind Markieff Morris’s 20-point third quarter and took a one-point lead in the final frame. But the surge proved unsustainable, and now the Wizards will play three essentially meaningless games before dispersing for a summer that will bring a flurry of change.

“It’s definitely frustrating. A little disappointing,” Beal said. “Especially when you hold yourself and your team to a high standard. You always want to do whatever it takes to achieve that. We just came up short this year. There’s no excuse for it, really.”

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