The Philadelphia 76ers have been rising up the Eastern Conference with eight straight victories, but the streak, despite a 48-point performance from Joel Embiid, came to an end with a 116-111 loss to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night.
It was Embiid’s sixth 40-point game this season and the 32nd of his career, moving him past Wilt Chamberlain for the second-most such outputs in franchise history, trailing only Allen Iverson. Embiid has a long way to go to catch A.I., who totaled 76 40-point games in a Sixers uniform.
The MVP race is super crowded at the top right now, and Embiid, who has finished second to Nikola Jokic each of the last two years, is right there in the mix again. He leads the league in scoring at over 33 a night. He’s top five in PER and the anchor of what has been a top-five defense. This game is just another bullet point on the ever-growing MVP resume.
James Harden, who came in having combined for 34 assists in his previous two games, had another strong outing with 26 points and 13 assists, but there wasn’t much support from the role players. De’Anthony Melton, who’s been superb over the last month, finished with just six points. Georges Niang, who has been a consistent 3-point shooter all season (43 percent), went just 1 of 7 from deep.
As a team, the Sixers, who register as one of the most accurate 3-point shooting teams in the league this season, made just six of 31 3s in Washington. After trailing by as many as 16 in the third quarter, the Sixers trimmed their deficit all the way to one, but ultimately were only able to score six points over the final five minutes — and three of those came courtesy of a last-gasp 3 by Embiid when the Sixers were down six with six seconds to go.
Philadelphia’s late-game offense has been a point of concern all season. In clutch minutes, categorized as a game being within five points during the final five minutes, the Sixers entered Tuesday night with the 24th-ranked offense in the league. Their defense has been stout in those minutes with the third-best defensive…
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