The Philadelphia 76ers knew who the challenges were when they took on the Washington Wizards in the 2021 playoffs first round. They had big red X’s on Wizards stars Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal, who drive Washington’s hopes.
In three games, Beal is getting his points, averaging 30.3 points, but he’s shooting 48.1% from the floor and he’s shooting 3-for-20 from deep. He has been harassed by Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle and the team’s defense has pleased coach Doc Rivers.
“We’ve defended well, but they’re just so tough,” said Rivers. “The energy that both of those guys expend per game is amazing to watch. On the flip side, that means we have to expend the same amount of energy, and I think overall, we’ve done that.”
The biggest issue for Philadelphia to deal with in terms of scoring was Beal. He is just so supremely talented, and he can score in so many different ways. He dropped 60 on the Sixers in January. In Game 1, he made some ridiculously tough shots and had 33 despite being bothered by Philadelphia’s length.
“Bradley has shaken loose a couple of times, but what I’ve been overall happy with is we haven’t made many mistakes from the 3 with him,” Rivers added. “We’ve made some mistakes where he’s been able to go down the lane and take the in-between, contested shots. You don’t want him taking any open shots. I think the mistakes we’ve made have been the right mistakes, overall with him.”
As for Westbrook, the king of the triple-double continues to be relentless. He’s averaging 17.3 points, 11.7 assists, and 7.7 rebounds in the series while shooting 40% from the floor. He has attacked the Sixers every chance he gets because that’s who he is. He does not care who is in front of him, he is just going to keep attacking.
“Russell, you’ve just got to stand in the fire,” Rivers finished. “We’ve done that well overall. There’s times we’ve won that, there’s times that Russ has won that, but you have to know that coming into the series. He’s coming at you.”
Philadelphia has done a good enough job to take a 3-0 lead in the series. They will have to do it again on Monday to close the series.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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