RECAP: Washington Wizards 120, Philadelphia 76ers 115

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 18: Ben Simmons
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 18: Ben Simmons

The Philadelphia 76ers may have lost to the Washington Wizards in their season opener, but they showed the grit that should come to define their season.

Brett Brown went with a ten-man rotation tonight, and played Embiid far more than his allotted 16-20 minutes. That tells me one thing: he’s looking to win.

Gone are the days of playing Nik Stauskas just for development’s sake. We’re chasing that 6-8 seed and we’re chasing hard. The Sixers’ starters all actually had positive plus/minus ratings, so it’s just on the bench players to not let the other team outscore them so much.

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As much as I like the Sixers, I didn’t expect them to pull this out. It was a close game at the end but the Wizards have the same core group of veterans as last year, while the Sixers have one mainstay from last year in Covington, the 31-game Embiid, a rookie in Simmons, and two other veterans who essentially are playing their first regular season games with the team in Bayless and Redick.

I understand that it will take the Sixers a while to gel, and expecting them to pull off a clutch comeback on the road against the Wizards so early on would be unrealistic. Still, they played well together overall and I was very encouraged.

Small sample size hot take warning: this game showed that the 76ers can hang with the upper-echelon teams in the East. Maybe not win a seven game series necessarily, but we’ll fight and make it tough.

It’s the Philly way, after all.

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