PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers were looking to build on a three-game win streak as they returned home to host the Washington Wizards on Wednesday. They had just knocked off the Wizards on the road on Halloween night and were looking to get it done at home.
It didn’t go as planned. The Wizards shot 57.7% from the floor, and they scored 68 points in the paint in a 121-111 win over the Sixers. Philadelphia had a tough time defending Washington without Joel Embiid, and the Wizards did whatever they wanted in the paint.
The officiating also seemed to bother the Sixers. They were arguing with the officials all night, and James Harden even picked up a technical late in the third quarter.
“It’s hard so I’m not taking a shot at the officials,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Every game is kind of different. Some games are touch games. Some games, they allow a lot of contact. I thought tonight, it was a little inconsistent, but it was a lot of contact, and you can see that. I told our guys ‘Listen, I’ll yell and fight, but stop complaining and play’.”
The Sixers did that in the third and found an offensive groove, but the Wizards were getting everything they wanted on their offensive side so it offset Philadelphia’s success.
“I thought we did that in the third quarter,” Rivers added. “I think we scored 39 points. The problem is you score 39 points, the other team can’t have 34. That’s a quarter where if you defend at all you changed the game and the game goes away, but instead, every time we scored, they scored back and that was really frustrating.”
Not having Embiid is a huge problem for Philadelphia, but the Sixers were 2-0 without the big fella entering this game. They can’t use that excuse in this one. They just didn’t play well enough to win the game.
“They exploited our switches a lot tonight,” the coach continued. “They moved the ball, they shot 58% basically from the field, and they made some tough shots. I will say that, but defensively we did not have great energy tonight. You can see it from the start of the game.”
Just for reference, Kristaps Porzingis had 30 points on 9-for-13 shooting, Bradley Beal had 29 on 11-for-17 shooting, and Kyle Kuzma added 18 on 8-for-12 shooting.
“Beal was way too comfortable all night. Porzingis was comfortable all night and it fed off of that,” finished Rivers. “Even down the stretch. I mean, we gave, I think it was Kuzma, their shot. You’re not gonna win games like that.”
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