First, the Washington Wizards tried Alex Len, who looked overmatched. Then, there was Daniel Gafford, the energetic big who bit on just one too many shot fakes. And finally, there was Robin Lopez, a crafty veteran who still didn’t make much of a difference.
No matter which one of their bigs was on the court, the Wizards were unable to stop Joel Embiid.
The Philadelphia 76ers center had his best game of the series Saturday, dominating as the Wizards now are on the brink of elimination after a 132-103 loss at Capital One Arena. Embiid finished with a playoff career-high 36 points, shooting 77% to go along with his eight rebounds and three blocks.
Washington trails the best-of-seven series 3-0 and Philadelphia can complete the sweep Monday, starting at 7 p.m.
Truthfully, Embiid has been a problem for Washington over the course of the first round. But Saturday’s performance showed why Embiid was listed as one of this season’s three MVP candidates. He bullied his way around the rim. He made the Wizards pay with his jumper, knocking down three of his four 3-pointers. And despite carrying Philadelphia’s offense, Embiid was a game-changer on the defensive end with his interior presence.
Embiid’s dominance came in just 28 minutes of game time — he sat the entire fourth quarter with Philadelphia up by 23 at the start of it. But when on the floor, he made sure to have his fun. He taunted the crowd and embraced the heavy Philadelphia contingent who appeared to make the trek to the District.
At one point, Embiid received MVP chants from the crowd — only for them to be drowned out with boos.
“Embiid’s ability to make plays makes the game easy for a lot of their players,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “They’ve obviously got a good team, good players. But I can’t imagine anyone playing better than him — that was MVP level tonight.”
Regardless, the Wizards are left grasping for answers. So far, Washington’s adjustments ultimately hasn’t affected the bottom line: the 76ers are more talented. And they’re outplaying Washington.
On Saturday, the Wizards even got scoring help from others outside Bradley Beal (25 points). Russell Westbrook, a game-time decision with an ankle injury, had a team-high 26 points, his best output through three games. Gafford (16 points) and forward Rui Hachimura (10 points) also reached double figures.
But the 76ers dominated. They raced out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter, withstood a Washington run in the second and blew the game open the rest of the way. Besides Embiid, Philadelphia torched the Wizards from deep — hitting 17 of their 33 3-point attempts.
Beal said the Wizards weren’t as disciplined as they needed to be defensively.
“It was bad, it was horrible,” Beal said. “Danny Green’s a shooter. Seth Curry’s a shooter. … We just didn’t make them dribble. I mean no disrespect to them, but we want them to put the ball on the floor and create plays. But we didn’t make them do that. They literally rose up and shot it over us. They had a lot of open 3s.”
Desperate to avoid falling into a 3-0 hole, Brooks agreed Saturday’s contest would be a “kitchen sink game” — meaning the Wizards had to throw everything at Philadelphia. Brooks indicated after Wednesday’s Game 2 that lineup changes could be in store, and sure enough, there were some changes. Most notably, the Wizards opted to start forward Davis Bertans over guard Raul Neto.
The thinking behind the swap was for a few reasons, Brooks said. First, the Wizards needed to do a better job matching up with Philadelphia’s size. The 76ers’ wings — Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris, especially — controlled the matchup by easily getting to the rim. Second, the Wizards needed an offensive jolt and Brooks hoped that inserting Bertans into the starting lineup would help get him off to a faster start after going scoreless on Wednesday.
The change, however, didn’t work as intended. Bertans still struggled to shoot the ball, going 1-of-5 from beyond the arc. And because Bertans is a defensive liability, the 76ers exploited his presence on the floor to find open shooter after open shooter.
The 76ers shot 58.6% in Game 3 — a series best. All five of Philadelphia’s starters reached double figures, with Harris (20), Curry (15) and Green (15) leading the way behind Embiid.
Saturday got so ugly for the Wizards that Brooks used his final timeout with still more than seven minutes left in the game.
“We’ve got to be tough,” Westbrook said. “(Monday) is win-or-go-home. There’s not much to talk about. Xs and Os really don’t matter. We’ve got to kind of just grind it out and be tough.”
