The Philadelphia 76ers are at home again to take on the Washington Wizards, looking to rebound from their loss to the Suns on Monday night. The Sixers have lost three of their last four, having only beaten the Nets during that stretch. The Wizards are coming into Philly riding a three-game losing streak and will be looking to get themselves just their seventh win of the season over a depleted Sixers team.
Sixers game information
Who: Washington Wizards (6-28) at Philadelphia 76ers (14-20)
When: 7 p.m. EST
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA League Pass, Monumental Sports Network
Latest on the Sixers
On one hand, the Sixers shouldn’t need very many players if they’re going to take down the Wizards. On the other hand, the Sixers don’t have very many players for tonight’s game. As it has become quite the usual way of doing business in Philly, Joel Embiid will miss another game, Paul George will be out again, and Kyle Lowry will miss the contest. That’s in addition to Jared McCain and KJ Martin still being out. The Sixers have a more talented injured list than most teams have active in the league.
What does this mean for the Sixers? Well, it will be a lot of Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr., and hopefully Guerschon Yabusele and Justin Edwards. The idea of Maxey having to play a lot of minutes with a limited roster wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, except that Maxey continues to play heavy minutes night in and night out. Over the last eight games, Maxey has been playing just over 38 minutes per game. While he’s young and healthy, that isn’t a good formula to continually push.
The real problem for the Sixers has been their lack of shooting. They’ve been playing good defense and have been in most games, but they can’t seem to shoot the ball consistently. Maxey, despite the effort on both sides of the ball this year, is just shooting terribly at 42.1% from the field and 34.5% on his three-point attempts.
It’s not like George is shooting any better, shooting 41.4% from the floor and 33.5% on his threes. When Caleb Martin and Guerschon Yabusele are the two best three-point shooters on your team, that will tell you all you need to know about the performance of the team’s top stars.
Latest on the Wizards
While Philly fans are dealing with an underperforming team, the Wizards are coming to town just in time to show people what a truly bad team looks like. They’re the last-place team in the league and have only six wins over the course of their first 34 games. While there are no true “stars” on the Wizards roster, players like Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma, and Malcolm Brogdon have been good players in the league. The team also has young players like Bilal Coulibaly, Alexandre Sarr, Justin Champagnie, and Carlton Carrington, who are all young and talented.
The problem for the Wizards is that they young talent isn’t ready yet and they don’t have enough quality veteran players to lead the team. Kuzma and Brogdon would be those guys but they’ve never been “star” players and while they still have value, one of those isn’t leading the team.
The team is not ready to compete, but against a depleted Sixers team, the Wizards have eight players averaging in double digits and actually rebound better than the Sixers. They also happen to be second from the worst defensive team in the league with a 118 rating, and they’re dead last in offensive rating at 105.5, so it doesn’t seem like the team would have a chance, except that they’re playing the Sixers without two of their best players.
What to watch for tonight
Tonight’s game is a masochist’s dream. Two teams will be going head-to-head, trying to see who can perform the worst on the court. While the Sixers still hold an advantage, thanks to Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr., Caleb Martin, and Geurschon Yabusele, the team doesn’t have much depth and will have to rely on minutes from some of the younger players who haven’t been on the court that much this season.
Here’s the uplifting part: With the team going up against the Wizards, there should be absolutely no reason for Maxey to have to play 40+ minutes in the game. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse could utilize young players like Justin Edwards and Adem Bona to see exactly what the team has in the two.
Edwards has played well the past two games and could be the steal of the last draft if he’s developed correctly. Bona is just a ball of energy and not short on talent. In 11 minutes against the Suns, he had four points and five rebounds, while against the Nets, in the previous game, he had six points and three rebounds in just seven minutes. Tonight is the night to see some breakouts from the youngsters. Give them the time and allow them to run with the young Wizards. That should be about the excitement for the night.
Also, Maxey will score about 40 points.
Prediction
Sixers 111 – Wizards 106
