WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Wizards clinched the worst record in the NBA on Friday night with a 140-117 loss to the Miami Heat.
Washington (17-64) has lost nine in a row and 25 of its last 26 to tumble to the bottom of the standings.
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Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio, left, handles the ball as Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly, center, defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio (0) goes to the basket for a layup over Washington Wizards forward Leaky Black, second from right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, right, dunks during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) shoots a 3-point basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio, center, goes to the basket and attempts a layup but has his shot blocked by Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly, top right, while being fouled by Wizards guard Will Riley (27) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
The Wizards became the first NBA team to lose 64 games in three consecutive seasons. The Vancouver Grizzlies lost at least 63 games in each of their first three seasons from 1995-96 to 1997-98, while the Process-era Philadelphia 76ers matched that futility from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
Simone Fontecchio and Pelle Larsson both scored 24 points for the Heat (42-39), who had lost 10 of 13. Miami scored an average of 143.5 points while going 4-0 against Washington this season.
The Heat are already assured a fourth consecutive trip to the play-in tournament.
Miami’s Bam Adebayo had 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. He scored 83 points, the second-most in NBA history, against Washington on March 10 and averaged 34.8 points against the Wizards this season.
Miami used a 10-0 run late in the first quarter to take the lead for good. The Heat was up 34-23 after a quarter and 72-52 at halftime. Miami shot 63.2% (24 of 38) in the first half.
The Wizards closed within 92-82 late in the third quarter, but Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored the last seven points in Miami’s 13-3 run to close the period to re-establish a cushion.
Bub Carrington scored 30 points to lead Washington, while Bilal Coulibaly scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half.
The Heat played without its top two scorers, Norman Powell (right groin soreness) and Tyler Herro (right foot soreness).
Heat: Closes regular season at home Sunday against Atlanta.
Wizards: Concludes season Sunday at Cleveland.
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Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio, left, handles the ball as Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly, center, defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio (0) goes to the basket for a layup over Washington Wizards forward Leaky Black, second from right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, right, dunks during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) shoots a 3-point basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio, center, goes to the basket and attempts a layup but has his shot blocked by Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly, top right, while being fouled by Wizards guard Will Riley (27) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
HOUSTON (AP) — Artemis II’s astronauts returned from the moon with a dramatic splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than a half-century.
It was a triumphant homecoming for the crew of four whose record-breaking lunar flyby revealed not only swaths of the moon’s far side — never seen before by human eyes — but a total solar eclipse. They emerged from their bobbing capsule into the sunlight one by one.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen hit the atmosphere traveling Mach 33 — or 33 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, made the plunge on automatic pilot.
The tension in Mission Control mounted as the capsule became engulfed in red-hot plasma during peak heating and entered a planned communication blackout.
Thousands of miles away, the astronauts’ families huddled in Mission Control’s viewing room, where cheers erupted when the capsule emerged from its communication blackout and again at splashdown.
“This is an incredible test of an incredible machine,” NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said. “This has been a gift to the world from NASA.”
All eyes were on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield that had to withstand thousands of degrees during reentry. On the spacecraft’s only other test flight — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred exterior came back looking as pockmarked as the moon.
Like so many others, lead flight director Jeff Radigan anticipated feeling some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six-minute blackout that preceded the opening of the parachutes. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha awaited the crew’s arrival off the coast of San Diego, along with a squadron of military planes and helicopters.
Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.
Artemis II didn't land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13's distance record and marked the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when the crew reached 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). Then in the mission's most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman's late wife, Carroll.
During Monday's record-breaking flyby, they documented scenes of the moon's far side never seen before by the human eye along with a total solar eclipse. The eclipse, in particular, “just blew all of us away,” Glover said.
Their sense of wonder and love awed everyone, as did their breathtaking pictures of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled Apollo 8's first lunar explorers with Earthset, showing our Blue Marble setting behind the gray moon. It was reminiscent of Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968.
“We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon, bringing them back safely and to set up for a series more," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Friday from the recovery ship. "This is just the beginning.”
Their moonshot drew global attention as well as star power, earning props from President Donald Trump; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; Britain's King Charles III; Ryan Gosling, star of the latest space flick “Project Hail Mary”; Scarlett Johansson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and even Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner of TV’s original “Star Trek.”
Despite its rich scientific yield, the nearly 10-day flight was not without technical issues. Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were hit with valve problems. In perhaps the most high-profile predicament, the toilet kept malfunctioning, but the astronauts shrugged it all off.
“We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient,” Koch said, “unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”
Added Hansen: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware to space and it’s a doozy.”
Under the revamped Artemis program, next year’s Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.
The Artemis II astronauts' allegiance was to those future crews, Wiseman said.
“But we really hoped in our soul is that we could for just for a moment have the world pause and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and we should all cherish what we have been gifted,” he said.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
People wait for a glimpse of the return of NASA's Artemis II Friday, April 10, 2026, along the beach in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
In this photo provided by NASA, the Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers aboard approaches the surface of the Pacific Ocean for splashdown off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
In this photo provided by NASA, the Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers aboard approaches the surface of the Pacific Ocean for splashdown off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
In this image from video provided by NASA, the Artemis II Orion capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, on Friday, April 10, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this photo provided by NASA, U.S. Navy divers prepare to deploy in small boats from the well deck of USS John P. Murtha to recover Artemis II crew members NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist and NASA's Orion spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
In this image from video provided by NASA, the Artemis II Orion capsule, right, separates from the service module above the Earth in preparation for splash down in the Pacific Ocean. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew, counterclockwise from top left, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover pose with eclipse viewers during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed the Moons curved limb during their journey around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed a bright portion of the Moon on April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this view as the Earth sets behind the Moon during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
