Sixers vs. Wizards takeaways: Trend of losing to lesser competition continues in D.C.; Joel Embiid’s visible frustration

WASHINGTON — The 76ers of old showed up Tuesday night.

Joel Embiid’s frustration was visible after what was a game-changing play. And the team forgot how to close out games.

Below is my look at three things that stood out during Tuesday’s 116-111 loss to the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.

In past seasons, the Sixers had a knack for beating good teams and losing to struggling ones. Apparently, they’re not completely over that.

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The Sixers (20-13) headed into Tuesday’s game on an eight-game winning streak. Their final contests during that streak were exciting victories over the solid New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers. As a result, the belief was the Sixers would destroy a Wizards team not far removed from a 10-game losing streak.

Instead, the Sixers played without a sense of urgency early on. Even when they did up their energy level, they couldn’t overcome their poor shooting and ill-timed turnovers. They made just 6 of 31 three-pointers and committed 16 turnovers, which led to 25 points for the Wizards (14-21).

All this led to a bad loss for a Sixers squad that had looked nearly invincible during their winning streak. Bad losses are bound to happen, especially over an 82-game schedule. But Philly is trying to make a statement that it is amongst the Eastern Conference’s elite teams.

On this night, however, they looked more like a team that lacked focus and were fortunate to only lose by five points.

“Tonight, if we had come back and won it, it would have been a steal to me,” coach Doc Rivers said. “I didn’t think we had the right approach.”

The Sixers center finished with 48 points, 10 rebounds, three steals, and three blocks while imposing his will from the start.

However, his frustration after being called for his fourth foul and subsequent absence from the Sixers bench was just as noticeable as his play on the court.

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After hitting a pair of free throws to pull the Sixers within three points (88-85), Embiid picked up the questionable foul with 1 minute, 5 seconds left in the third quarter.

With Embiid on the bench, the Wizards went on a quick 6-0 run to take a 94-85 advantage. The perennial All-NBA selection flared his arms in disgust from the bench before heading to the locker room. He returned with 7:56 remaining in the game and checked back with at the 7:23 mark.

Rivers was asked about Embiid being upset and going to the locker room.

“I didn’t even know he … I didn’t see it,” Rivers said. “So I have no answer for that.”

Embiid explained the situation when asked about the foul and if an injury led him to going to the locker room.

“I didn’t think it was a foul,” he said. “I thought I got there in time. That being my fourth foul. At that point of the game, we were down three, and after being down 15 the whole game, that’s a big swing. You got to take your chances. And then just like that, they put the lead up to nine to close the quarter.

“So there’s a lot we could have done better. But there’s always room for improvement.”

But was he OK on the play?

“I’m good,” he said.

They battled back from a 20-point second-quarter deficit against the Clippers on Friday. The Sixers came back from a 14-point first-quarter deficit versus the Knicks on Christmas. However, they played well down in the stretch to win both of those games.

Not Tuesday.

The Sixers were horrible down the stretch.

Embiid closed the gap to one point (108-107) on an alley-oop dunk with 2:59 left. However, the Sixers went on to miss their next six shot attempts en route to shooting 1-for-7 the rest of the way. They also committed a costly turnover during that time.

The Sixers made just 1 of 8 three-pointers and committed five turnovers in the fourth quarter.