With their postseason hopes dwindling, the Wizards went to Philadelphia to get pummeled by Most Valuable Player candidate Joel Embiid and former MVP James Harden. The loss lowered Washington’s record to 31-37, and left them in 12th place in the East — a half game behind the Chicago Bulls for 10th and a spot in the play-in.

The Wizards, who entered the season in with postseason aspirations and a “win now” push, are 3-7 in their last 10 and losers of three in a row.

Why’d they get housed by the Sixers? Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, and Kyle Kuzma — the triumvirate they’ve anointed as their Big Three — all played sorry, crappy, no-good games. Collectively, the Small Three shot 13-41 from the floor, 1-10 from three and committed five turnovers. They used 48% of the team’s possessions at an offensive efficiency of just 80.

They also lost because no one other than Corey Kispert played well. Kispert made several timely cuts for scores, including one somewhat surprising dunk, and shot 3-7 from three-point range. The rest of the team shot a combined 3-19 from long range.

Deni Avdija had a particularly difficult outing — just 1-8 from the floor with a pair of missed threes.

The Philadelphia gameplan had defenders daring Avdija and Delon Wright to take open threes. They shot a combined 0-4.

Wes Unseld Jr. and the coaches made some head-scratching decisions that contributed to the loss. They gave veteran big man Taj Gibson, who’s been ineffective all season, rotation minutes against Embiid in the first half. Not only did Embiid abuse him inside, he ignored Gibson on defense to double team whoever had the ball near the basket. Gibson’s only score was a 20-foot jumper, which Embiid conceded because it’s exactly the shot Philly wanted to induce.

Gibson didn’t return in the second half due to a non-Covid illness. I don’t know what that means either. Maybe a fast-acting flu bug he caught at halftime?

The coaches also opened the second half with a 2-3 zone that left significant space in the middle for Embiid to cook. He scored on them a few times before they switched back to man defense, and then he immediately scored on them some more.

The stomping meant that garbage time got started early, which gave Wizards fans a chance to see promising up-and-comers like {checks notes} 30-year old Anthony Gill and 27-year old Kendrick Nunn.

New G Leaguer Jamaree Bouyea hoisted a step-back three and grabbed a rebound. First round pick Johnny Davis worked up a sweat in 7+ minutes and tallied an assist and two fouls.

On the bright side, Wizards fans got a chance to see what elite players actually look like. Embiid continued to make his MVP case with 34 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal and 4 blocks. His biggest weakness has been committing turnovers when pressured, but Washington double-teams couldn’t even do that.

James Harden continued to show he’s an all-time great. His transformation from scoring freak and world-class grifter to elite point guard...and world-class grifter...is impressive. He dominated while taking just 11 shots. His passing was creative, daring and precise, and he finished with 14 assists and just 3 turnovers.

The week ahead gives Washington a get-well game at home against the pitiful Detroit Pistons followed by two probable losses: at the Cleveland Cavaliers and home against the Sacramento Kings (who are actually good).

Four Factors

Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

Stats & Metrics

Below are a few performance metrics, including the Player Production Average (PPA) Game Score (very similar to the one I used to call Scoreboard Impact Rating). PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).

Game Score (GmSC) converts individual production into points on the scoreboard. The scale is the same as points and reflects each player’s total contributions for the game. The lowest possible GmSC is zero.

PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. Reminder: in PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples sometimes producing weird results.

POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.

ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average last season was 112.0. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.

USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.

ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified slightly by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.

+PTS = “Plus Points,” this stat is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in this game compared to league average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 114, the league — on average — would produced 22.8 points in the same 20 possessions. So, the player in this hypothetical would have a +PTS score of -2.8.