The Philadelphia 76ers were able to finally figure out the zone defense that had given them trouble over the previous two games, both losses. They did a good job of executing against the zone and finding the open seams in order to come away with a 125-108 win at home on Saturday.
If you ask the Sixers though, they could have played much better, which is true. The win is nice, but at the end of the day, it was just the Wizards. The Sixers will have to play better against the elite competition in the league.
“It’s good when we win, we still think we can play a lot better,” said Tobias Harris. “We think, for sure in today’s game, in that second quarter we can play better in different moments. We’ll take the positives from it because we got a win and we were able to have a good win with guys stepping up. Take the positives from it and be ready for our next game.”
There was a stretch at the end of the second quarter when Philadelphia built a 23-point lead, but the Wizards came storming back behind 3-pointers from Bradley Beal and some big shots from Isaiah Thomas. The Wizards then got as close as nine before Philadelphia was able to pull away.
“We just got lazy defensively,” Harris added. “Sloppy, lazy defensively and we gave up three-point baskets which we were kind of stopping them from so that was about it.”
Overall, the Sixers held the Wizards to just 40.9% shooting and Washington was only 7-for-31 from deep on the night so it wasn’t completely lost. The performance did leave some room for improvement on the Sixers end.
“It was better,” said Ben Simmons of the defense. “At the same time, I think we took our foot off the gas and let them get back into it a little bit.”
Philadelphia will now head to Detroit to take on a struggling and injury hobbled Pistons team so it gives them another chance to right the issues before a big Christmas Day showdown with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. [lawrence-related id=21907,21900,21887]