WASHINGTON — The Philadelphia 76ers were stuck in a dogfight with the lowly Washington Wizards on the road on Wednesday night. Looking to end a two-game losing skid and finding themselves in a tough spot, they turned to their MVP to lead the way.
Embiid dropped 50 points on 19-for-29 shooting. Eleven of those points came in the fourth quarter, leading the Sixers to a 131-126 win. It was not an easy win. The defensive effort was not great and the team struggled with its shooting.
The Sixers missed their first 13 3-point attempts, and the offense had a tough time getting into a rhythm all night. Meanwhile, the Wizards were playing well. As a result, Embiid had to come to the rescue.
“Just being aggressive and it was needed because they started the game — they made a lot of shots, and obviously, our shots wasn’t falling from 3,” Embiid said after the win. “Sometimes, your team needs you to play make. Sometimes, they need you to score, and I felt like it was one of those nights where I really had to be aggressive and get it going.”
The Sixers shot 2-for-16 from deep in the first half and they allowed the Wizards to shoot 54.9% from the floor. They were only down two at the half thanks to Embiid, who had 26 at halftime.
“Obviously, he was carrying us at the offensive end,” coach Nick Nurse said. “He was doing it in a lot of ways and it felt like if we could play some sort of defense, we had we had an offensive, place to go, right? We did get a couple a couple of key stops. … Obviously, we needed all those from Joel tonight.”
Not having Embiid was certainly felt in Philadelphia’s previous two matchups, losses to the New Orleans Pelicans and the Boston Celtics. His return to the floor was important in helping the Sixers get the job done.
“He’s our safety valve,” added Tyrese Maxey. “That’s why he’s the MVP. Just be honest with you. He covers up for a lot of our mistakes defensively, and then offensively sometimes, he can bail us out late clock and make some shots. So he was good tonight. He was aggressive from the jump. … He’s really good. He’s really good at basketball.”
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