3 observations: Joel Embiid, Sixers squeak past Bradley Beal, Wizards
The Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Washinton Wizards on Wednesday night looking to remain undefeated at home and continue their hot streak of good basketball. They did so in shaky fashion on Wednesday as they saw a 21-point lead evaporate, but they were able to squeak past the Wizards 141-136 to improve to 7-1 on the season.
Joel Embiid was dominant and led Philadelphia with 38 points and seven rebounds, Seth Curry had another great night shooting the ball going 6-for-7 from deep and scoring 28 points, Tobias Harris added 19 points and seven rebounds, Ben Simmons had 17, 12 assists, and six rebounds, Danny Green added 15, and Shake Milton had 19 off the bench. They needed all of that is Wizards star Bradley Beal went off for 60 points and he was just unstoppable all night long.
With that said, here are the three observations in this one:
Less stress for Embiid
The Sixers continue to show that they are much more than their two stars offensively. Curry set the tone in the first quarter knocking down all five of his triples and he has continued to be a terrific addition for this team offensively. There was one instance where the Wizards sent a double in the first quarter towards Embiid, he kicked it out to an open Green who then swung it to Curry for an easy triple. That is basketball in its purest form and the biggest thing to point out is that Embiid scored a grand total of one point in the opening quarter, yet Philadelphia led by nine. That doesn’t happen in the past. Embiid then unleashed his full arsenal in the second quarter and he scored 14 points in the quarter to push Philadelphia to an 82-67 lead at the half. The less stress he had at the outset of the game allowed him to be strong in the second quarter and allow the team to get some separation at the half. If it wasn’t for Beal, Philadelphia would have had a larger advantage. When Beal's onslaught continued in the second half, Embiid looked fresh down the stretch to close the game out. He had an impressive And-1 and he also knocked down a clutch triple to give the Sixers some breathing room late.
Aggressive Ben
Coach Doc Rivers has been preaching all season that he wants Simmons to attack downhill and settle for nothing less. From the jump, Simmons was attacking the basket and he was getting deep into the paint and finishing with either hand. Another thing to point out is the fact that he was searching for contact. That is not something to say about Simmons in the past. Normally, he will shy away from the contact and get too cute with his finishes. He went through the defenders in this one and he finished through it for a big bucket late that gave Philadelphia a 141-135 lead. Simmons also had a couple of really nice defensive plays down the stretch against Russell Westbrook. There was one instance where Westbrook was going downhill aggressively and Simmons came in from behind and poked the ball away. That was a really big play to preserve the lead.
Struggles with Beal
If there was a black eye on this game, it would be the defense against Beal. He had 50 points by the third quarter and there really wasn’t much of an adjustment in the way they defended him. He had a career-high 57 by the end of the third and if Philadelphia would have made an adjustment with him, they would have won this game easily and there would have been less stressful minutes late with a back-to-back with the Brooklyn Nets coming on Thursday. To Beal's credit, he is just a terrific scorer and there is only so much one can do, but there were too many easy buckets for him to allow him to get into a rhythm.
