PHILADELPHIA — A jubilant Joel Embiid laid back on the court and thrust his hips to the air back and forth in a crude gesture that only further delighted the packed Wells Fargo Center full of Philadelphia 76ers fans. It was that kind of night for the Wizards.
Days after pushing the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Wizards were stomped by Embiid and the 76ers on Wednesday — losing 120-95 as Washington now trails 2-0 in the best-of-seven first-round series. Game 3 shifts back to the District on Saturday, where Washington will look to avoid falling into a bigger hole.
Making matters worse, Russell Westbrook exited with 10:28 left with an apparent ankle injury. The Wizards guard collided with Philadelphia’s Furkan Korkmaz, grimacing on the floor for several seconds before gingerly walking to the locker room. He did not return.
As Westbrook exited, a fan dumped popcorn on his head — drawing Westbrook’s and the Wizards’ anger.
“To get food thrown on top of me, it’s just bull—-,” Westbrook said. “To me, it happens to me a lot of times. … There has to be something put in place for fans. They can’t just come to the game and do as they please because they wouldn’t do that [expletive] anywhere else. I’m sick and tired of it honestly.”
The popcorn incident and the loss overshadowed a magnificent performance from Bradley Beal. The Wizards had no answer for Embiid and Ben Simmons. That, at its core, is the problem that Washington faces in this series: The 76ers are too talented and have two stars who are tailor-made to give the Wizards — and many other teams — problems.
“Nobody’s feeling good,” Beal said. “Nobody’s happy where we are. Everybody wants to win. It’s definitely tough. … All we can do is continue to encourage everybody and stay engaged. It can be very easy to kind of distance yourself and give in and throw in the towel. This is a long series, anything can happen.”
In Game 2, Embiid scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Simmons chipped in another 22 and almost finished with a triple-double (nine rebounds, eight assists). Together, Embiid and Simmons went a combined 19-of-27 who only had four misses each.
Washington, on the other hand, failed to have anyone step up other than Beal, whose 33 points were a game-high. Westbrook, the Wizards’ other co-star, has yet to have a stellar offensive game against the 76ers, again scoring just 10 points. He had 16 in Sunday’s loss.
Once the Wizards fell behind by double-digits, they didn’t have the firepower to storm back. The team’s three-point woes have been an issue all season — and the Wizards shot a horrendous 2-of-22 from beyond the arc Wednesday.
Sharpshooter Davis Bertans didn’t live up to his label, missing all four of his attempts. The five-year, $80 million man also fouled out in 24 minutes of game time, making his final stat line 0 points, two rebounds and six fouls.
The Wizards had a full two days off between games, and in that time, coach Scott Brooks consistently talked about the adjustments his team would have to make. After Game 1, Brooks said he felt his team lacked “toughness” in stretches — leading to a series of mistakes. Primarily, Washington had to cut down on its number of fouls. Philadelphia took 33 attempts from the charity stripe on Sunday.
Washington was better at preventing Philadelphia from getting to the line. Then again, the 76ers hardly needed to get to the line when they could score at will.
Philadelphia shot 55.7% from the field, attacking the basket repeatedly. Simmons set the tone early on, scoring 12 points in the first quarter — more than double his total from Game 1. Most of Simmons’ baskets came in the form of slam dunks and easy layups.
“We played well in spurts, but when you play against this team, you can’t play well in spurts,” Brooks said. “You’ve got to sustain a lot of good basketball throughout the game. Their starting lineup is powerful. They have a lot of weapons.”
The Wizards routinely struggle with athletic wings like Simmons, largely because they have limited options to defend them. After Hachimura got into early foul trouble, Brooks expanded his rotation to include forward Chandler Hutchison, but that adjustment failed to make much of a difference.
Washington’s other goal in Game 2 was to clamp down on Embiid. Hachimura said Monday that the efforts to double-team Embiid previously were “half-[baked]” and needed to be corrected. Embiid, though, passed out of double-teams, swinging the ball to the open man — leaving the Wizards to scramble for the rest of the possession.
Embiid also made Washington pay with his jumper. The Wizards sagged off on the big man, but Embiid went 3 of 4 from deep.
The Sixers, meanwhile, pulled away near the end of the second. Beal’s strong quarter — he finished with 16 in the second alone — helped Washington close the deficit to four with three minutes left in half, but Philadelphia closed on an 18-4 run to go into halftime with a 71-57 lead.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.