The Philadelphia 76ers had some momentum on their side when they took a trip to the nation’s capital on Monday to visit the Washington Wizards. They had just come off an impressive win over the Miami Heat on Saturday and were hoping to carry it with them.
They were not able to do so as they started the game a step slow all afternoon long and they just had a tough day overall in a 117-98 loss to the Wizards. They were not able to get into any type of offensive rhythm outside of Joel Embiid and the player who represented that the most was Seth Curry.
The team’s sharpshooter did not attempt a triple until late in the third quarter, when he missed two late, and he only had eight points. The Sixers have got to feed him and get him more looks at triples and they were unable to do so on Monday.
“A lack of ball movement, a lack of he movement in some cases, but yeah,” said coach Doc Rivers. “He made the first shot of the game. I thought he went too far separation in getting him another shot which as a team, you gotta see that. Especially when a guy makes the first shot. That’s where we lack at times in terms of court generals on the floor seeing that. I had to call a timeout to call a play to get him involved and that shouldn’t happen, but it was just one of those games.”
It certainly was one of those games as it seemed that playing in a matinee after playing a grueling back-to-back is what caused a lot of issues for Philadelphia.
“You come off a game where it was probably our best ball movement and more a game where the players made plays for each other instead of trying to make it for themselves,” Rivers added. “Tonight, it felt like the ball stuck a lot and everybody was trying to make plays for themselves.”
Even with Embiid scoring 32 points, it felt like the Sixers did not get him the ball enough. Rivers was upset with that as well.
“Honestly, it was one of those nights that you couldn’t get him the ball enough,” said the coach. “I was exasperated with that. Just because they trapped him, they threw it out, the ball can still go back. I called a timeout to get us a repost one time. We didn’t see the game properly on the floor and that happens.”
The question then becomes who does that fall on? Is that Tyrese Maxey? Is that Embiid or Curry? Who is that on?
“That’s everybody,” Rivers finished. “Tyrese, where he can improve, when he sees a guy have it going, to make sure we get calls in for him. As far as ball movement goes, that’s not on Tyrese, that’s on everybody.”
The Sixers will return home now on Wednesday to take on the Orlando Magic.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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