The Washington Wizards are certainly not an NBA powerhouse by ant stretch of the imagination, but they are a tough team to handle on the offensive end. Washington is fourth in the NBA in the offensive rating and they are scoring 118.8 points per game which is good for third in the league.
That in itself makes it a challenge for a Sixers team who is fifth in the league in defensive rating, but they do give up 108.4 points on the road compared to 98.6 at home. If they don’t bring their hard hat defensively, it will be a tough night on Thursday.
“They really can score and they have some bigs that can shoot which is different than some of the team we have been playing,” said coach Brett Brown. “It challenges some of the defensive schemes that we have put on some of the recent teams so we have some decisions to make on how to guard them. All over the place, they’re dangerous and our defense has to be very much on point to win.”
Specifically, the Wizards are led by an All-Star guard in Bradley Beal who, without backcourt mate John Wall, has made a lot of moves forward as a player averaging 28 points with 7.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds. He’s also shooting 34% from deep on 8.0 attempts a night along with getting to the foul line consistently so he’s a tough cover.
“He’s got that thing that he puts the fear of everybody in, he can shoot,” Brown added. “All of a sudden, you’ve got that base and the world becomes a little bit clearer. You’ve got to close him out close. He’s athletic enough and smart enough to go body-body ball and have long steps through shoulders.”
Beal has continued to take big steps forward in Washington as he has consistently improved on his scoring average and he has done a good job of adding to his game in terms of scoring. It’s why he was finally named an All-Star in 2019.
“He can fire it, he can drive it, he’s really good at moving without the ball, so he’s got the whole thing,” Brown continued. “He can shoot it as a base and I think it’s out of evolution, you start learning well, ‘people won’t let me shoot it, not I got to learn how to drive it’ and ‘uh oh, now they’re really guarding me close, now I’ve got to set people up and move without the ball and free myself up and expose fouls to refs’ like he’s got the whole thing. For those reasons, he’s a really hard ask to guard.”
Both Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle have been terrific on the defensive end and both have said they enjoy taking on the opponent’s best scorer. They will get another test on Thursday against Beal and the Wizards. [lawrence-related id=20535,20518,20507]