Sixers ride hot start to dominant 146-101 victory over Washington Wizards

Tyrese Maxey briefly fumbled the second-quarter pass from Tobias Harris, but let the ball fly anyway from the right corner. And less than a minute later, the 76ers’ star point guard fired again.

And why the heck not?

Both shots dropped through the net — because of course they did — to rapidly push the Sixers’ lead to 34 points on the Washington Wizards. And those were two of the Sixers’ 20 makes on 45 attempts from beyond the arc Monday night, propelling them to a 146-101 record-setting blasting less than a week after Maxey’s team began ice-cold from deep in a down-to-the-wire win against the same overmatched opponent.

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“The game the other night against them probably had us a little focused,” said coach Nick Nurse, referencing the Sixers’ 131-126 victory in Washington last Wednesday. “Usually, in an NBA game, you’re going to see this swing back the other way for a while.

“But our guys kept playing with the same assertiveness at both ends almost, for the whole game.”

The Sixers’ first-half scoring barrage forced those tasked with looking up the franchise’s stats and records into overdrive.

Their 43 first-quarter points, anchored by a 9-of-15 mark from long range, were the most since a Jan. 2, 2019 contest at the Phoenix Suns. Their nine three-point makes were tied for their most in a single quarter since at least at least the 1997-98 season, matching the second quarter of an April 5, 2022 victory at the Indiana Pacers. Their 75-46 halftime advantage marked only the ninth time in franchise history that they scored at least 75 first-half points while allowing fewer than 50.

The gulf between the Sixers and Wizards only grew to 48 points in the second half, thanks to Joel Embiid’s 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Maxey’s 24 points and six assists in three quarters of action. Less than three minutes into the final period, Nurse had already begun emptying his bench. It all culminated into the Sixers’ largest-ever win over Washington, topping a 39-point victory in November of 1976.

That onslaught from the start was drastically different from the last week’s matchup against the lowly Wizards (3-19), when the Sixers (15-7) needed 50 points from Embiid to escape with a tight victory that they self-evaluated as out of sorts.

“Some nights you have it going on, so you’ve just got to keep pressing the issue,” Embiid said. “Keep punishing them, the other team’s defense. But I’m more happy about just our mentality defensively today. We were much better than we’ve been.”

The Sixers next play a home-road set against the Detroit Pistons, who on Monday lost their 20th game in a row.

The day after the Sixers missed their first 13 three-point attempts last week in Washington, Nurse insisted he liked his team’s looks but lamented that a rare four days between games “felt like 14.”

The complete opposite scenario unfolded at the start of Monday’s game.

On the Sixers’ first possession, Embiid found Maxey for an open look. That sparked a 5-for-5 start in less than three minutes of game time, including two more makes from Maxey and one apiece from Harris and De’Anthony Melton.

A concerted effort to push the pace off defensive rebounds yielded that initial shooting burst, Nurse said. It was a callback to a pregame remark about next steps for an offense that ranks second in the NBA in offensive efficiency (121.1 points per 100 possessions) but has ranked near the bottom of the league in three-point attempts for much of the season. When the Wizards loaded up to try to stop drives into the paint Monday, though, that opened kick-out passes.

“I just felt like we made the right plays over and over,” Embiid said.

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The blistering shooting then spread throughout the roster. A corner shot from Kelly Oubre Jr. Three in a row for Patrick Beverley (12 points) late in the first, prompting a heat-check attempt. Embiid and Robert Covington joined the party in the second frame.

“[The starters] set the tone, and guys came in and followed,” Covington said. “That’s what we have to do moving forward. It gives us a chance to really put our imprint on the game the way we did.”

The result: The Sixers’ advantage reached double digits less than two minutes into the game, grew to 17 points by the end of the frame and passed 30 on Maxey’s second-quarter attempts. In all, nine Sixers made at least one three-pointer.

Monday will technically go down as Embiid’s lowest scoring output in three games against the Wizards this season. Yet the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player still surpassed his NBA-best season scoring average entering Monday (33.3 points per game) in less than three quarters, reaching 34 on a pair of free throws late in the period.

The lopsided score meant the Sixers did not need Embiid in the final period, especially after he entered the matchup listed as questionable with left knee soreness after twisting it in Friday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks. He repeated “I’m good” when asked in multiple ways about how his knee felt during the game.

Embiid took advantage of the Wizards playing without injured starting center Daniel Gafford. His 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting and three assists complemented the Sixers’ three-point shooting in the first quarter. Then, he made that scoring margin even more insurmountable, with 17 points on 7-of-7 from every area of the floor, including a driving dunk, two floaters, a fadeaway and a three-pointer.

“Just trying to put them away,” Embiid said of that third quarter. “Trying to make sure that I wasn’t going to see the fourth quarter. I just wanted to be aggressive. Not just scoring, just attacking, and if they were closing out, I really just try to make the right play. I got lucky and made a few shots.”

Embiid has now scored at least 30 points in eight consecutive games played, dating back to Nov. 17. It’s the longest such streak and is tied for the second-longest streak of his career, eclipsed only by a 10-game streak last season. It’s becoming so routine that Nurse was not asked one question about Embiid during his postgame news conference.