PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed the Washington Wizards into the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night looking to handle business. The Sixers recently squeaked out a win over the Wizards on the road on Dec. 6.
There would be no squeaking on Monday.
Philadelphia jumped to a 14-0 lead, led by as many as 48 and smashed the Wizards, 146-101. They received a big game from Joel Embiid, who had 34 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists in 29:36 of playing time.
It felt like the 14-0 start was a killer for Philadelphia, and its lead was as large as 17 in the first quarter. The Wizards aggressively doubled Embiid, but it didn’t matter. He pushed the ball in transition off rebounds and he made the right play every time.
“Just pushing the ball in transition,” Embiid said. “Getting stops. They were loading up a lot. Just trying to make sure to take some of those drives away, but I felt like we just made the right plays over and over.”
The third quarter was big for Embiid. He had 17 points on 7-for-7 shooting, which allowed him to rest the entire fourth quarter — his goal.
“Just trying to put them away,” Embiid explained. “Trying to make sure that I wasn’t going to see the fourth quarter. I just wanted to be aggressive. Not just scoring, just attacking, attacking, and if they were closing out on me, just try to make the right play, and I made a few shots.”
The rest in the fourth quarter was needed for the big fella. He was questionable due to left knee soreness. He stated his knee felt good. As far as the many fourth quarters he hasn’t had to play in, he credits the team for playing together and getting the job done early.
“We’re just playing together,” he said. “I think depending some nights, you have it go long on so you gotta keep pressing the issue and keep punishing them, you know, the other team’s defense, but I’m more happy about just our mentality defensively today (Monday). We were much better than we’ve been.”
Embiid is correct. The Wizards scored 126 points in the matchup on Wednesday. Philadelphia was much better on the defensive end in this one.
The Sixers have won three in a row, and they play the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday on the road.
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