Although it was a win tonight in the stat column, it certainly didn’t feel like it. Joel Embiid took a nasty fall following a dunk halfway through the third quarter and looked to have hyperextended his knee. Embiid is expected to undergo an MRI shortly and hopefully will recover very soon with no severe damage. Before leaving, Joel had 23 points in just 20 minutes of play.

Looking at the rest of the team Matisse Thybulle continued his hot streak with another outstanding performance. Thybulle grabbed three steals and was fantastic on both ends of the court and helped slow down a Wizards offense that couldn’t get anything done outside Westbrook and Beal.

It was another showing for the bench mob tonight, with Shake Milton finally looking to be in his groove once again. Shake had 18 points off the bench with 57% shooting, still having that instinct to pull the trigger whenever given an open shot. Fellow backup Furkan Korkmaz had 18 points as well leading the team with four three-pointers. With the absence of Ben Simmons, these two have done a fantastic job while playing extended minutes. 

Dwight Howard and Tobias Harris did a fantastic job on the boards with the Sixers outrebounding the Wizards by 17. Sixers legend Tony Bradley saw some time with the absence of Embiid late and left off where he was after Chicago having 6 points in just nine minutes.

Philly moves to 26-12 following this win and remains in first place in the Eastern Conference. The group gets a day off before returning home to face the Spurs. Sunday’s game will be the Sixers first with 3,000 fans in attendance since play was suspended last March. If things hold to form, Ben Simmons will be returning following a week of contact tracing from COVID-19.

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Mandatory Credit: Nick Wass AP Photo