Scouting the Sixers’ final eight regular-season games
The Philadelphia 76ers vs. the Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards are not a good basketball team, but not quite as bad as people think either.
Despite having a sub-40 winning percentage in 2019-20, the Wizards have already beaten the Philadelphia 76ers once and could easily do so again due almost exclusively to their best player, somehow-only-26-year-old shooting guard Bradley Beal.
Through the first 64 games of the regular season, Beal averaged an insane 30.5 points per game, the second-most of any player in the league behind only the game’s ultimate ball hog James Harden. While the Wizards do have a few solid secondary options like Rui Hachimura and everyone’s former favorite trade target Davis Bertans, the Wizards pretty much live or die by Beal for better or worse.
Fortunately, the Sixers have a slew of options to shut down Beal for 36-odd minutes a game.
From Ben Simmons and Josh Richardson in the starting five, to Matisse Thybulle and Glen Robinson III coming off the bench, Brett Brown has a ton of options at his disposal to hold down Beal even in switching situations.
Heck, they could even double-team Beal if need be, whatever works.
Regardless of how the Sixers perform against the Pacers, I’d hope Game 2 against the Wizards is where the team flexes their muscles and talks fans off the edge.