The Philadelphia 76ers were able to knock off the Washington Wizards on Wednesday 107-98 despite losing Ben Simmons to a knee injury in the third quarter. It wasn’t a particularly pretty win, but with the Sixers, when is it ever pretty?
The team came out slow in the third quarter as they did not play with any real intensity on defense and it showed as Washington rallied from a double-digit deficit to take the lead. However, when coach Brett Brown inserted Al Horford into the game, a change in their defense was noticeable despite finishing with only two points.
“The physicality of that game you felt,” said Brown. “You knew you needed something to compete with that. It needed to go apples for apples and if Al is anything, he’s physical. I thought that he came in and he had 10 defensive rebounds, he had five assists, he had three shots, and he was a plus-18. There was a stage he came in at the end of the third and you could just feel stuff changed and it was really the thumbprint that he put on it with his physical play.”
Horford is this team’s leader and when the time calls for it, it is his job to step in and really be that leader on the floor. He normally is a guy who can step in and make an immediate impact and that was definitely felt in this one.
“That’s what we’re all about. I want to set the tone physically, defensively, and I felt like we weren’t doing that at the start of the third so when I came in, I wanted to make sure that I brought that edge a little bit and got us going.”
Philadelphia will now move on to face the Orlando Magic on Friday where they will be looking to keep this winning feeling going. The Sixers are now just a game back of the Indiana Pacers for the 5 seed, but they need to find a way and keep going on the defensive end of the floor and find consistency. [lawrence-related id=36227,36205,36198]