Sixers Muggle Things Up Against Wizards

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

It was April Fools Day and the Sixers got together for one of the better pranks of the quasi-holiday. Scheduled to play a basketball game against the Washington Wizards, the Sixers instead let 12 lucky fans take the court in uniform and have a go at taking on John Wall and company. Or, at least they might as well have, as the results would have been fairly similar to what actually went down at the Verizon Center.

The Sixers never seemed to be playing with the same intensity as the Wizards, who were described to be coming out in ‘playoff mode’. Seemingly odd timing for a squad that had lost 5 of 6 games entering play and was now facing one of the bottom-3 teams in the league. Nevertheless, Washington certainly looked the part of a postseason contender, extending the lead to as many as 34 late in the third quarter.

Against the Washington reserves in the fourth quarter, the Sixers had their only stretch of passable play, cutting the deficit to 15 behind the hot shooting of Hollis Thompson (4-8 from three for 16 points). The run at least had the result of getting the Wizards starters back in the game after they were literally icing things down on the bench (moral victory!).

The point guard tandem of Ish Smith (23 points) and Isaiah Canaan (18 points, 6 assists) both had strong games offensively, but they might as well have been cones in the All Star skills challenge for all the resistance they offered John Wall on the defensive end. Wall (13 points, 15 assists) was able to get into the lane at will, and seemingly every pick and roll the Wizards ran led to either a lay-up for him, an open kick-out to a teammate, or an easy feed to a plunging Marcin Gortat. Gortat tore up the Sixers big men to the tune of 23 points on near-perfect 10-11 shooting and 14 rebounds.

The center pairing of Furkan Aldemir and Henry Sims was as tough as wet toilet paper stopping Gortat down low. I’m not sure how well the Sixers staff will be able to evaluation Nerlens Noel at the power forward position when his frontcourt mate is allowing the opposition to score at will. Still, Noel did have plenty of time at the 5 spot, especially in the second half, and it was definitely an off night for the rookie. Do not let the 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 block fool you, as a lot of those were empty stats in a blowout. More importantly, Noel had a subpar game defensively, as he was part of the problem on Gortat some possessions and even got backed down for easy buckets by Kevin Seraphin on numerous occasions. Hopefully, it was a one-game blip amidst what has been an outstanding post-All Star break for Noel.

Obviously, the loss helps the Sixers’ lottery prospects for their own pick, but if there was any team the Sixers would want to beat, it would be the Wizards. Washington is now back to being tied for the same record with Oklahoma City; if the Thunder don’t finish better than the Wizards, the Sixers will not get their first-round pick in this draft. Draft implications aside, hopefully we’ll just see a better effort from the team Saturday in Charlotte.