The Washington Wizards’ list of maladies, already long, continued expanding Thursday night at Time Warner Cable Arena. A few minutes before they even stepped on the court against the Charlotte Hornets, backup center Kevin Seraphin surprisingly notified Coach Randy Wittman that he couldn’t play because of a sprained right ankle, the same injury John Wall has played through for more than a week. Near the end of the first quarter, Bradley Beal walked off to the locker room with a big toe injury and did not return.

The developments came at perhaps the worst possible time. The Wizards are entrenched in a rut, unable to play a complete game to their liking for weeks. Thursday, their offense crumbled in the second half after building an 11-point lead, and they fell, 94-87, for their first five-game losing streak since April 2013.

“Take my quotes from the last four games,” a visibly frustrated Wittman said. “It’s a broken record. Until we understand it, it’s going to be like this.”

The task wasn’t made any easier without Beal. After the game, the shooting guard explained he hurt the toe against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday and the pain was immediately overwhelming. A subdued Beal said the toe could undergo tests Friday and he was uncertain about his status for Saturday’s meeting with the Brooklyn Nets.

“My toe is just messed up,” said Beal, who went 0 for 5 from the floor and scored one point in 11 minutes. “It was sore all day today, and I tried to give it a go and it was just a few plays where I couldn’t even push off. I couldn’t do things I wanted to do and I figured if I can’t give it 80 [percent] or more, I wasn’t going to do the team like that because it wasn’t fair to them.”

The Wizards have hit a losing skid, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are finally playing up to their potential. The Post Sports Live panel discusses whether the Wizards should be afraid of losing their No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

A healthy Beal would have been a valuable asset in the fourth quarter, when the Wizards had a lineup featuring four reserves on the court until the Hornets had an 84-83 lead with 4 minutes 17 seconds remaining. Over the final 12 minutes, Washington was outrebounded 18-6, outscored 25-13 and shot just 5 for 19 against the NBA’s top-ranked defense since Jan. 1.

The back-breaking sequence occurred with just less than a minute remaining. Paul Pierce (team-high 19 points) had just drained a three-pointer with 1:23 left to cut Charlotte’s advantage to four, but the Hornets gathered two offensive rebounds on the ensuing possession before Gerald Henderson put the final touches on his game-high 27-point performance with two free throws. Henderson helped Charlotte overcome an underwhelming performance from star center Al Jefferson, who faced stout post defense from Marcin Gortat and Nene and was held to eight points on 3-for-12 shooting.

Wittman and a few players, including the veteran Pierce, continued to note that the Wizards’ offense has faltered when the ball stops moving.

“For whatever reason, we take it upon ourselves to make it about me,” said Wittman, whose team lost the battle on the boards, 50-37.

Point guard John Wall, however, emerged with a different take.

“I don’t know, I’m calling the plays, we’re moving the ball,” said Wall, who played through a sprained ankle again to post 15 points and 13 assists. “The difference is we’re missing shots, and when you’re missing shots and they’re getting open, good looks, that’s the difference in the game. That’s how I see it. I thought we moved the ball pretty well.”

The Hornets (22-27), who began the night with the NBA’s 27th-ranked offense, scored 34 points in the first quarter, powered by Henderson, who scored 13 points in the period. But the Wizards rediscovered the physical, gritty, defense-first style that had been absent for so long for a stretch. Boosted by a strong showing from their second unit, buoyed by DeJuan Blair providing a spark and logging a season-high 15 minutes because of a shortage of big men, Washington stifled the Hornets and went on a 15-2 spurt to take an eight-point lead.

The surge continued in the third quarter, and Wall’s alley-oop to Garrett Temple bloated the advantage to 11 points. It went downhill from there. By the end of the period the lead had shrunk to five points, and the momentum had shifted.

“Precision and closing out quarters, I don’t know if we realize the quarter’s almost done the way we play sometimes,” Wittman said. “That hurts you if you come in at five instead of double-figures. You might withstand a bad half if you would close out quarters like that.”

Now comes a day off, an opportunity to rest, and diagnose and repair the fissures before they take the floor again Saturday.

“We’ve got to find a way,” Pierce said. “Nobody is going to get us out of this but ourselves. We can’t point the finger at each other. It’s got to come from within. We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror, take responsibility and get ourselves out of this rut.”