All in all, not a bad job by the Wizards.
The Washington Wizards were all but destined to lose big tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers. They did lose, but only by a 131-126 margin.
When reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid comes to town and the Wizards have Daniel Gafford and … not much else at center, Washington had two options for a win: let Embiid get his numbers and keep everyone else under control, or try to stop him and hope no one else get into “Wiz Killer” mode.
Washington chose the former as Embiid scored 50 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and dished 7 assists. Philadelphia only saw three other players score in double figures, the starting backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and De’Anthony Melton, as well as former Wizard Kelly Oubre.
To their credit the Wizards kept things interesting. And they even led for most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters, even pulling a 10 point lead at one point. That was due to their hot shooting. Washington let Philly shoot 55.2 percent and shot 56.9 percent from the field themselves.
For the Wizards, Jordan Poole led with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, playing like the guard fans wished we would have all season. While Kyle Kuzma only scored 13 points, he had a decent shooting night. I was most impressed with Bilal Coulibaly, who scored 12 points and had 3 steals off the bench.
The Wizards will go on the road Friday to play the Brooklyn Nets. Tip off is at 7:30 p.m. ET. See you then.