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22 Thoughts, Notes, and Stats on the Sixers’ 4-1 Series Win Over Washington
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The Sixers dispatched the Wizards in five games, which was polite of them. A gentleman’s sweep without the services of Joel Embiid, who is going to have to return for round two on a torn meniscus.
We don’t know jack about the extent of the injury, but he was out there pregame on Wednesday night getting shots up, so it seems like he’ll be good to go at some point hopefully in the near future. He’s just gonna have to manage the pain, if he’s experiencing any of it.
But first –
Let’s put a bow on the first round series with 22 bulletpoints about what we saw:
1) Three blowouts in this series should make you feel good about the Sixers moving forward. The Wizards totally stink, but it was encouraging to see them run Washington off the floor instead of playing down to their level. Even in Game 5, without Embiid, they took the Wizards’ best punch and still won by 17. They won by 25 in Game 2 and 29 in Game 3 Game 1 was basically knocking off rust and they lost Embiid in Game 4, but otherwise this series really was not close.
2) Washington had absolutely nobody to defend Embiid. Clint Capela is infinitely better than the Wizards’ bigs, but in the third game against Philly he committed some early fouls and had to come off the floor.
3) Ben Simmons would have had a triple-double in Game 2 if he played in the fourth quarter. Similarly, he would have had a double-double in Game 3 if he played more than 30 minutes. It’s not a huge deal on the surface, but these are the types of marginal things that can change social media and talk radio narratives.
4) Ben doesn’t have to score if Tobias Harris is contributor 1B behind Embiid. This has been the case all season long, and Harris went for 25 on average in this series, so that key box was checked off.
5) Ben Simmons shot 35.7% from the line in this series (10-28). He was a 61% free throw shooter in the regular season.
6) I wouldn’t worry too much about Bradley Beal having a couple of big scoring games. The Sixers really made him work for his points and at times he was knocking down some ridiculous shots, especially in Game 1 during the third quarter.
7) The Shake Milton/Tyrese Maxey minutes battle was interesting sidebar topic going in, but coming out Maxey is clearly the guy who needs to be on the floor. They should go nine guys in the second round with Maxey joining George Hill, Matisse Thybulle, and Dwight Howard off the bench. In the ECF, if they get there, you’re probably looking at an eight-man rotation.
8) Matisse had eight steals in this series, so he raised $4,000 for charity via that Red Bull + Sixers initiative.
9) It should be illegal to go to commercial before showing a replay of a key sequence. Thank God we’ve got DVR.
10) That Robin Lopez hook shot is so damn ugly but you have to begrudgingly respect it.
11) Favorite play of the series? For me it was this one:
https://twitter.com/thisleague/status/1399508931576225793?s=20
Fake the hand off into a double stagger. DHO with Seth Curry and Joel Embiid and then just slip out the back door for an alley oop. Really pretty stuff.
12) Transition defense was a big topic coming into this series. They allowed 14.2 fast break points per game to Washington, which is just okay. There were some good moments and some bad moments, but they did a lot better in transition in the second halves of these games.
13) This series stylistically looked nothing like the other matchups from round one. The Sixers shot the 15th most threes per game and the Wizards shot the 16th most threes, so they were dead last among all playoff teams. Philly finished 6th with a 37.7% 3P number and Washington was dead last, so the discrepancy between attempts and percentage still exists for the Sixers.
14) Likewise, the Sixers finished #1 in FTA and Washington was #2. It was just a rough and choppy and ref-influenced series.
15) The Sixers did a nice job getting their turnovers down against a stinky Washington team. Just 11.8 per game in this series compared to 14.4 in the regular season.
16) Philly was #1 in steals and #1 in blocks in the first round.
17) Of all eight first round matchups, Sixers/Wizards was played at the fastest pace (102.6).
18) The tracking data says the Sixers shot 71.4% on 28 post ups in this series.
19) Sixers were #1 in points per game (124) and field goal percentage (51.1)
20) Gotta love Bradley Beal’s offensive game. He’s so smooth. Just gotta tip your hat to the guy.
21) The Sixers starting lineup had a net rating of 45.6 in 60 shared minutes on the floor. That is an insane number.
22) It’s a bummer that the local broadcasters can’t continue into the second round. Marc Zumoff and Alaa Abdelnaby did a really nice job calling this series. Now fans gotta listen to the sleepy and boring national broadcasts.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com