The Philadelphia 76ers were getting torched in the second half. They watched a 21-point lead completely disappear as they suddenly found themselves trailing the Washington Wizards at home in the fourth quarter and they needed Joel Embiid to lift them to a win at home.
The reason for that? Bradley Beal. He scored a career-high and he tied Gilbert Arenas for the Wizards franchise record with 60 points. He had 25 points in the third quarter and he single-handily kept Washington afloat despite the offensive output by the Sixers.
“Brad Beal happened,” said Embiid. “He got too many good looks. We weren’t able to stop him, but we did a better job in the fourth quarter.”
That begs the question, why didn’t coach Doc Rivers put Ben Simmons on Beal? Simmons has been locking up some of the game’s elite scorers all season and he definitely could have been a big factor in stopping the Wizards super scorer.
Instead, he rolled with the combination of Danny Green and Matisse Thybulle against him.
“I guess after 60 we probably could have made the change,” laughed Rivers. “We liked what Ben was doing as a roamer tonight, off of (Russell) Westbrook, they’ve been able to run. We thought it would allow him to get a lot of rebounds and push the break. We felt strongly that we can get a lot of easy baskets. So that part of it worked. The other part didn’t.”
Whether it was Simmons or not, the Sixers entered the night with the best defensive rating in the NBA. They should have had enough to stop a guy like Beal even on his best night.
The Sixers did do a much better job against him in the fourth holding him to three points on 1-for-6 shooting in the final 12 minutes, but that is the type of effort that needs to be there from the beginning.
“We got to do that the whole game,” said Embiid. “Shoot, we got so many good defenders, there should never be any reason why someone comes in this building or on the road and drop 60 on us.”
The Sixers will move on to Thursday where they will face another guy who has the ability to go for 60 in the form of Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets. They will not have Kevin Durant due to health and safety protocols, but Irving is a guy who is capable of having big scoring nights as well. Rivers might have to consider going to Simmons in that matchup early.
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