PHILADELPHIA — Montrezl Harrell blew kisses to the Philly crowd on a bucket that kept Washington’s upset rolling.
Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyle Kuzma did their part to help the Wizards kiss their losing streak goodbye.
Dinwiddie scored the go-ahead bucket with 90 seconds left in the game and had his first career triple-double to lead the Washington Wizards to a 106-103 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.
Dinwiddie had 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Kuzma scored 24 points and the Wizards snapped a six-game losing streak.
“The points just came because I shot a lot,” Dinwiddie said. “I didn’t shoot well.”
Kuzma joked Dinwiddie - who was just 4 of 16 - had a quadruple-double thanks to “missed shots.”
“The No. 1 way to get out of a funk is just ball out,” Kuzma said.
Harrell, who scored 14 points, hit a 16-footer for 102-98 lead and blew kisses with his outstretched right arm and one with his left to a stunned Philly crowd headed into a timeout. The Wizards won with Bradley Beal sidelined at least a week with an injured left wrist.
“With the absence of Brad, that’s a big chunk of our offense,” coach Wes Unseld Jr. said. “But no one is going to step in and fill that void. Collectively, everyone’s got to pick it up in certain areas and tonight was a great example of that.”
Beal paid attention to the outcome, tweeting, “ W!!! ”
Joel Embiid had 27 points and 14 rebounds for the Sixers but missed a couple of gimmes and had a tying shot late blocked by Kuzma that could have changed the game.
“We just made the right plays down the stretch and throughout the whole game,” Kuzma said.
Danny Green hit a 3 for the Sixers with 1.6 seconds left that pulled them to 104-103. The Wizards sealed it from the line.
Tyrese Maxey scored 22 points for the Sixers.
“I just thought we never got our offensive rhythm the entire night,” coach Doc Rivers said.
The Sixers pulled off perhaps their most improbable win of the season on Monday when they played without Embiid and gutted out an overtime win against Memphis. With Beal out, the scuffling Wizards — 9½-point underdogs, according to FanDuel Sportsbook — gamely pulled off perhaps their most unlikely win of the season.
Kuzma played like Washington’s version of Embiid for the night and hit four 3s on 10 of 19 shooting overall. He left a 30-footer fly to close the third, and when it brushed through the net, the Wizards grabbed an 81-79 lead.
Embiid was named the Eastern Conference player of the month for a January where he averaged 34 points, 10.8 rebounds and took the Sixers to the brink of first place. Embiid, though, was flat in the first quarter, and missed 4 of 5 shots at the same time Washington made 10 of 17.
The early hole helped end the Sixers’ five-game winning streak.
“It took us a long time to get going,” Maxey said. “We had a slow start and it was hard for us to recover.”
Nothing, though, could rattled the Wizards. They were coming of a tough 112-98 loss a night earlier at Milwaukee and showed toughness down the stretch given the back-to-back schedule and Beal’s absence.
“This is the NBA We won the other night without Joel and people don’t get that,” Rivers said. “People are like how could you lose or win those games? Because other guys on the team want to win, too. And they’re good.”
TIP-INS
Wizards: C Thomas Bryant missed the game with a sprained right ankle.
76ers: G Seth Curry sat out with backed spasms.
JOERGER RETURNS
Sixers assistant coach Dave Joerger returned on a full-time basis after missing most of the last two months undergoing cancer treatment. Joerger’s treatments concluded in mid-December, and he will continue his recovery while with the team.
“Words can’t describe how grateful I am to be back around this basketball team,” he said. “Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. For now, I’m energized by the trajectory of this 76ers team and am looking forward to helping our group reach the ultimate goal of an NBA championship.”
Joerger thanked his family and the organization for their support in his recovery.
“He’s gone through a lot, far more than anyone knows,” Rivers said. “The fact he’s coaching this year is a miracle. I’d say four weeks ago, there was no way he was going to coach this year. The fact he’s doing it is just really good.”
UP NEXT
Wizards: Host Phoenix on Saturday.
76ers: Play Friday at Dallas.
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