The Sixers faced off against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday afternoon. We all wanted to see how they would play after playing sub-par and escaping with a win vs. the Spurs. Although the Wizards are a low level Eastern conference team, they historically play the Sixers tough and scrappy.

The first quarter began how the last game ended, with Shake Milton hitting a 3-pointer to begin the scoring. The Wizards played the Sixers tough in the first quarter, double teaming Joel on every touch in the post. As a result, Joel had to pass out to his teammates to make plays. On one occasion, the ball made its way to Ben Simmons on the corner and he did shoot an open corner three. The first quarter ended with a Milton 3 pointer as time expired. He paced the team with 8 points as they lead 26-20 at the end of the first.

The second quarter was a back and forth affair with the Sixers building a lead up to as much as 10 points. The home team went to the locker room leading 54-47. Balanced scoring was led by Joel Embiid, who had 11. Richardson followed with 10 points and Simmons and Shake both had 8 points at half. Ish Smith and Jerome Robinson paced the Wizards at half time with 11 and 8 points, respectively.

The third quarter was not a good quarter for the Sixers in many ways. The Wiz started the quarter on a 15-4 run to take a 4-point lead with just over 6 mins remaining. Not only did they lose the lead, but they lost Ben Simmons to an apparent left knee injury. Ben Simmons limped to the locker room with Elton Brand following him. Briefly after the injury, ESPN Insider Adrian Wojnarowksi reported that Ben Simmons didn’t have any swelling or major pain in his left knee. This news had the city of Philadelphia hoping for the best. The Sixers eventually took back control of the third period and led 77-74 after three.

The fourth quarter was dominated by Joel Embiid. He made mid-range jumper after jumper and fought for every rebound. He also passed out of the double team to set up his teammates. The Big Fella picked up his 5^th foul about 6 mins into the final period. In the last two games, when Joel Embiid went to the bench, the Sixers have collapsed. They lead 89-84 when Embiid sat and managed to front run the rest of the way. The 76ers won 107-98 to improve to 41-27 and 2-1 in the bubble. Joel Embiid dominated once again with 30 points and 11 rebs. Tobias Harris scored 17 and the back court rounded out the scoring with Richardson and Milton combining for 31 points.

Quick Observations from this game:

• Health Update for Ben Simmons- NBA Insider Sham Charania reported that Ben Simmons’ left knee MRI came back clean and he is considered day to day. I would expect for Simmons to sit the remaining seeding games to get ready for the playoffs.
• Alec Burks got all the “back-up” point guard mins in this game. He scored 9 points in 20 mins and was 2-2 from 3-point range. In my opinion, Burks is a better option than Neto
• With Simmons out, the rotation will change. I think whoever is healthy first between Mike Scott and GRII will pick up mins in Simmons’ absence.

The next game will be against the Orlando Magic, this Friday at 6:30PM.