The 31-19 Sixers have four games to go before next Thursday’s trade deadline.
Here are the essentials for their matchup Wednesday night in Philadelphia with the 23-27 Wizards:
- When: 7 p.m. ET with Sixers Pregame Live at 6:15 p.m.
- Where: Wells Fargo Center
- Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the MyTeams app
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And here are storylines to watch:
Wizards moving in wrong direction
Since blowing the Sixers out on Jan. 17, Washington has lost six times in a row. The team is currently a game behind the Hawks for the Eastern Conference’s final play-in tournament spot. In contrast, the Sixers are going for a 5-0 homestand and have won 15 of their last 18 games.
Bradley Beal is out with a left wrist injury. Per The Athletic’s Josh Robbins, Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. told reporters that center Thomas Bryant suffered a “significant” right ankle sprain during Washington’s loss Tuesday to the Bucks.
NBA
As NBC Sports Washington’s Chase Hughes noted, Bryant’s injury led to Daniel Gafford re-entering the rotation. Gafford and the Wizards have not had much success guarding Joel Embiid, who’s scored 68 points on 37 field-goal attempts over two matchups this season against Washington. Embiid will be well-rested after getting the night off Monday and watching the Sixers beat the Grizzlies in overtime.
Figuring things out on the wing
Matisse Thybulle and Danny Green have been the Sixers’ two top wings over the last two seasons. The team has been great when they share the floor — a plus-33.2 net rating this year, plus-14.7 last year, per Cleaning the Glass — but it hasn’t always been obvious how to best use the duo.
That’s partly because Seth Curry is a small two-guard who merits a starting spot and partly because Thybulle is an exceptional defender who draws little respect as a three-point shooter. On Monday night, though, head coach Doc Rivers nailed it with Thybulle and Green.
With the Sixers down four points to Memphis in overtime, he substituted Thybulle out for Green and got a big three-pointer from the 34-year-old. And with the Sixers up one ahead of the Grizzlies’ final overtime possession, Thybulle checked in alongside Green as part of the team’s “need a stop” lineup. He grabbed a loose rebound and intelligently chucked the ball down the floor to Tyrese Maxey, who coasted in for a cherry-on-top layup as time expired.
The Sixers won’t have their full rotation Wednesday with Furkan Korkmaz (left knee soreness) and Shake Milton (back contusion) still out, but it appears Rivers is fine-tuning his sense for how to employ Green and Thybulle. Green has been impacted by injuries often this season, but his 25 minutes Monday were his most since Dec. 20.
What’s the Rising Star got in store?
Maxey, who was named a Rising Stars Challenge participant Tuesday, scored a season-high 33 points against Memphis.
He admitted with a laugh that he laid the ball in at the final buzzer because he simply didn’t have enough energy for a dunk. Maxey played 43 minutes Monday and 41 Saturday. In 11 games since returning from an asymptomatic case of COVID-19, he’s averaged 39.1 minutes.
There was clearly a lot to like about Maxey's performance in the Grizzlies game. Rivers was especially pleased with his aggressive finishing at the rim.
“He went on a stretch where he was missing those,” Rivers said. “He was releasing it too early, he was flipping it. And we kept telling him, if you’re going to go downhill and go through contact, your fingernails have to hit the backboard — because that means you’re taking it through the contact. When you get bumped and you try to flip it, that’s a hard shot. And I thought tonight his fingernails was there; he kept going. That was good.”