The Philadelphia 76ers were looking to finish off their 5-game homestand on Wednesday with another win, but the Washington Wizards had other plans.
Despite missing two starters in Bradley Beal and Thomas Bryant, the Wizards came away with a 106-103 win over the Sixers. Kyle Kuzma had 24 points to lead the Wizards, but the focus was their containment of Sixers star Joel Embiid.
Embiid had 27 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists, but he shot just 11-for-27 from the floor as it was not the usual dominant game from Embiid that we have grown accustomed to seeing. He also shot 5-for-8 from the foul line as he did not get to the line as often as he normally does.
“Sometimes, it’s just the way the ball bounces but overall, I think we did a terrific job on him,” said Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. “He’s extremely talented, he’s a tough guard so you’ve gotta send multiple bodies for him to get off the ball. You look at the numbers and you see that he’s scored 27, but over the last five he’s averaging closer to 40 and we kind of forced him into some tough twos, think held him to about 41% from the field.”
This was a tough start to the month of February for the big fella after he had a terrific month of January averaging 34 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 54.2% from the floor. The Wizards did a terrific job of sending waves of defenders at him such as Daniel Gafford, Montrezl Harrell, and others in order to bother him.
“Not going to keep him from catching it, but when he caught it, we had him jumping up at times and doubling but very fitting,” Unseld Jr. added. “I thought it was a pretty decent carry-over from the bulk of last night. Second half of last night, outside of like the last five minutes, I thought we were playing well, but for it to pay off tonight (Wednesday), I think a great win for our guys.”
Give the Wizards credit, they did a terrific job on Embiid. The Sixers now must go back to the drawing board and get ready for a big matchup with the Dallas Mavericks on Friday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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