Sixers

Three Keys to a Philly/Washington Series that the Sixers Should Win Handily

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 21st, 2021 · 9:13 AM EDT

---

The Wizards beat the snot out of the Pacers Thursday night to claim the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and earn the opportunity to get their doors blown off by the Sixers.

Harsh?

Maybe, but we’re just calling it how we see it. Washington has no prayer. The Sixers will win this series 4-0 or 4-1. Maybe the Wizards steal game three or game four at home, but they just don’t have the talent to keep up with Philly over a seven game series.

That said, there are some good nuggets to consider as we kick off the postseason on Sunday:

1. getting out in transition

The Sixers’ worst defensive trait this year was transitional play, and they finished 29th out of 30 teams when it came to giving up fast break points (14.3 per game). According to NBA Stats, only Houston was worse.

Washington plays at the league’s highest pace, 104.67, and they’ll try to get up and down the floor and turn their games into a high-scoring, back-and-forth types of affairs. This will be a good exercise in getting back and getting set on on defense, and making Washington break you down in the half court.

Said Danny Green earlier this week about transition:

“It was something we tried to do better later in the season, but we just didn’t have enough time to practice it. It’s something you can do in practice, and that (involves) communicating and working on communicating in transition. I think the last maybe 15 games or so, we tried to do a better job with the communication, just trying to get somebody to stop the ball, ‘take ball,’ or have guys fan out and get to the weak side. Obviously it’s also about hustle and passion and desire to try to stop somebody, to get back and get in front of them. But communication is what we need. We got after it (in practice) and guys were going at each other and competing. Doc liked some of it and didn’t like some of it, but overall we’re getting some good stuff out of (practice) and communicating better in transition.”

It’s a good quote. The main thing with transition defense is getting somebody on the ball and trying to limit that up-court pass. Inevitably, you’ll probably get cross-matched, but that’s preferable to missing an assignment and allowing a cheap bucket.

2. Keep the backcourt in check

One of the Sixers’ weaknesses over the past few years was that some random guard would go off for 40 points. Perimeter defense was not a strong suit during the Brett Brown era.

With Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle on the perimeter, and Green and George Hill in the fold, they’ve got more than enough to handle the Russell Westbrook/Bradley Beal combo, which is the only threat Washington possesses. Their third-leading scorer this year was Rui Hachimura, who is averaging a shade under 14, and Davis Bertans adds about 11 per game. If you limit one of Beal or Westbrook in each contest, there’s just not enough oomph behind them to keep up.

RE: Russ and Beal, this is what they did against the Sixers this year:

• Game one: Beal 31/2/3, Russ 21/11/15
• Game two:  Beal 60/7/5, Russ 20/8/12
• Game three: Beal 19/2/1, Russ 25/5/8

All three of those games were Washington losses.

And in the game where Beal went for 60, he couldn’t hit anything in the fourth quarter. He went 1-6 in that period as the Sixers clamped down and finally started to lock him up.

Back in January, I clipped a couple of those plays and shared them in a recap:

Bottom line, the Wizards are gonna need huge performances from Beal and Westbrook to have a chance to win this series, and that won’t happen four times.

3. No answer for Embiid

The Wizards don’t have anybody who can guard MVP finalist Joel Embiid. Thomas Bryant tore his ACL a while back and is done for the season. Hachimura is a power forward. Alex Len, Robin Lopez, and Daniel Gafford can’t handle Embiid.

In three games against Washington this year, Embiid went for 90 points in 92 minutes. He shot 28 for 48, and hit 27 of his 28 foul shots. He is going to feast on a weak Wizards front court and will put their guys in foul trouble early.

That’s about all you need to know for this series. Try to slow down Washington, keep their guards in check, and let Embiid do his thing. The Wizards finished the regular season with a losing record and it’s going to take a miracle for them to beat the Sixers in the first round.

I’ll leave you with this on a Friday morning:

Scott Brooks on the 76ers: "They put their socks on one sock at a time, just like us — unless they’re doing something tricky, putting two socks on, but I don’t think so."

— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) May 21, 2021

Huh?