Sixers-Wizards best/worst: Joel Embiid’s late heroics and defense, Seth Curry’s first-half shooting, Bradley Beal’s career night

The 76ers remain the NBA’s best team. They’ll take a 7-1 record into Thursday night’s contest against the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center. This comes after they posted a 141-136 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Here is a look at some of the best and worst performances from their win.

Joel Embiid scored 10 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Sixers to victory. As impressive as that was, I had to give this award to Bradley Beal. The Wizards shooting guard scored a career-high 60 points to keep his team in the game. Beal made 20 of 35 shots, including going 7-for-10 on three-pointers. He also had seven rebounds, five assists, one steal, and four turnovers.

I gave this to Deni Avdija. The Wizards shooting guard missed his lone shot attempt in 15 minutes, 31 seconds of action. He failed to grab a rebound or record an assist, and finished with three personal fouls. Avdija did block a shot.

Embiid gets this one for the second straight game. The Sixers center had a game-high three blocks to go with three steals.

I had to give this to the Sixers’ foul shooting. They made 23 of 33 free throws (69.7%).

This goes to Seth Curry’s first-half, three-point shooting. The Sixers shooting guard made all six of his first-half three-point attempts en route to scoring 20 points. Curry missed his lone three-pointer in the second half.

This goes to the Sixers’ start. At 7-1, they’re off to their best start through eight games since the 2000-01 season. Back then, they opened with 10 straight wins en route to finishing the regular season 56-26 and reaching the NBA Finals.