There are nights in the NBA where teams are just not going to play well. That’s what happens over the course of a long 82 game season so an effort like Thursday’s 119-113 loss for the Philadelphia 76ers could be understandable.
Except, for this team, it isn’t. This team is too talented and too experienced to lose to the Washington Wizards. While the Wizards do have some talent and Bradley Beal is an All-NBA player, they are the worst defensive team in the league and the fact that the Sixers committed 21 turnovers, with 15 coming from Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, is unacceptable.
“There were just a lot of breakdowns in what we were doing,” said veteran Al Horford who had 11 points and five rebounds. “That’s definitely frustrating to see, not being able to execute how we wanted and then just continuing to let them have their way all night.”
The mistakes were easily correctable in terms of just taking better care of the basketball and locking in defensively. The Sixers knew what kind of challenge the Wizards presented and they did not answer the call as they allowed Washington to score 40 points in the second quarter and it snowballed from there.
“It was knowing that we could have done much better and handled the game,” Horford added. “We need to give them credit, they played well. We definitely gave them some confidence in the early going and they ran with it.”
The Sixers will look to bounce back over the weekend when they return home to host the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors for a back-to-back at the Wells Fargo Center where they are a perfect 10-0. [lawrence-related id=20732,20724,20716]