The Philadelphia 76ers knew what they were getting into on Thursday night. They were facing off with one of the best offenses in the NBA and they did not respond like they were aware of that. They allowed the Washington Wizards to score too easily and the Sixers had no answer until it was too late. It resulted in a 119-113 loss to the Wizards that kept the team winless in D.C. since 2013.
Coach Brett Brown was upset with the Sixers as he felt like they did not respond like a championship team should have after building an 11 point lead in the first quarter.
“I didn’t think we responded well at all,” said a frustrated Brown afterward. “I thought that it took us about 36 minutes, 38 minutes to come with an energy that we have been playing with. You don’t attain defensive standards and rankings playing the way we did in the first three periods and some.”
The Sixers entered the night ranking fourth in the league in defensive rating, but that all fell apart in the second quarter. Wizards forward Davis Bertans caught fire and he scored 22 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting and 6-for-6 from deep as Washington outscored Philadelphia 40-22 in the quarter.
“Some of it you shake your head and you give Bertans a lot of credit,” Brown added. “Some of the shots that he was making, you give him some credit…I don’t think we responded from a sense of urgency standpoint like we needed to.”
Joel Embiid had 26 points and 21 rebounds, but his effort was not enough to stop the Wizards.
“They made some threes,” said Embiid. “Bertans got hot.”
Joel Embiid on the 2nd quarter: “Bertans got hot” #Sixers pic.twitter.com/tmq0oisZbc
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) December 6, 2019
The Sixers return home for a back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. [lawrence-related id=20679,20669,20661]