Sixers lessons learned: Bradley Beal can cook
If there is one player who should register any level of concern in Doc Rivers’ head, it is Bradley Beal. The dude can cook. There’s a reason he averaged 31.3 points in the regular season. Not because he was chucking on a bad team. Not because the Wizards’ supporting cast is alarmingly understaffed. It’s because he’s one of the most gifted scorers in the game of basketball.
The Sixers have thrown countless looks at Beal, most of which involve either Ben Simmons or Matisse Thybulle — who are, as some might argue, the two most individually impactful perimeter defenders on planet earth. It has mattered very little for long stretches of this series. Beal has scored 33 in both games.
Luckily for the Sixers, Beal can cook without it causing large-scale issues for the defense. When the Wizards are contained to the halfcourt, Beal is the only real weapon. If he scores 33 while Westbrook combusts and the rest of the offense is a big goose-egg, then Philadelphia can sleep peacefully at night.
With poor shooters all around and Westbrook sucking up an uncomfortable amount of oxygen, it’s Beal who can truly unlock Washington’s offense. The Sixers have done a good job allowing him to get his without triggering production elsewhere on the Wizards’ roster. Westbrook has been a non-factor two games in, while Washington’s other elite shooter — Davis Bertans — just fouled out of Game 2 with a crisp zero points on the scoreboard.
Beal can cook, and it matters not.