Sixers

10 Things to Consider for Sixers/Wizards, Game Two

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 26th, 2021 · 2:13 PM EDT

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Finally, we’ve got game two of this Sixers/Wizards playoff series. Sunday afternoon feels like it was eons ago, as we watch every other NBA series move on to game three and sit here twiddling our thumbs.

The main story of game one was Tobias Harris and his career-high in points, coupled with Joel Embiid’s foul trouble and ensuing second-half success. As we head into the next game with the Sixers up 1-0 in the series, here are some sidebar topics and things that are worth considering:

1. The free-throw shooting number for the Sixers has been funky all year. Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris are very good at the line, but Ben Simmons and Dwight Howard have been pulling the number down tremendously. The latter pair went 3-12 on Sunday and if they shot even 33% at the stripe the Sixers would have covered the spread.
2. Despite Embiid’s foul trouble, the Sixers didn’t let Washington spend much time on the line. Believe it or not, the Wizards led the NBA this season with 26.2 FTA per game, but only got to the line 15 times in game one. That’s a win.
3. Likewise, Washington bagged 16 fast break points in game one, which was actually lower than their regular season average of 18 (#2 in the league). As much as we talk about transition defense for the Sixers, they buckled down when the first unit came back in to start the third quarter, and limited the damage from that point on.
4. This isn’t going to be a three-point shooting series, since Washington and Philly were both bottom-five in 3PA this season. However, the Wizards shot only 20 three pointers in game one and only made eight, so from an analytics and efficiency perspective, the Sixers looked good in this area.
5. Davis Bertans quietly had a pretty good game. 14 points, 50% from the floor and 50% from three point range. He’s the only guy they have behind Westbrook and Beal who can quickly throw some points on the board, and the Sixers didn’t have a dedicated defender on him. Instead, six different guys were matched up for at least a minute. Keep an eye on how they guard him tonight.
6. One of the bench subplots is whether or not Tyrese Maxey gets Shake Milton’s minutes. Maxey played 6:41 in game one and Milton played 9:49. This will likely shift in favor of Maxey.
7. They should try to get Embiid engaged in the paint early in this game. He took a couple of early threes in game one, then ended up in foul trouble, but when he came back on the floor proceeded to only take one more three for the rest of the game. Joel averaged a season-low in 3PA this year and as a result he’s been a more efficient scorer.
8. Matisse Thybulle is going to be a key bench piece with his defense this postseason, but he’ll have to knock down some of these open shots, too. He’s only 1-6 from the field over his last three games and he’s going to get opportunities to take these wide-open catch-and-shoot looks. His three-point shooting fell from 35.7% as a rookie to 30.1% this year.
9. Ben Simmons historically plays better in game twos than game ones in the first round. There isn’t a large sample size, but against Miami he had 24/9/8 in game two. Against Brooklyn it was 18/10/12.
10. Seth Curry took 13 shots in game one, which is great. He should always be getting double digit looks, and the nice thing is that nine of those were threes, which means he wasn’t stepping into long twos or taking inefficient looks.

That’s about it. We’ve kind of exhausted every angle with two days off between games, and we’re hungry for more meaningful basketball tonight.