By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Sixers (0-1) opened up their regular season on Wednesday with a road trip to Washington DC to take on the Washington Wizards (1-0), and fell 120-115.
The game was close throughout and the Sixers had stretches during the game where they looked like the better team.
The Sixers starting lineup was very efficient scoring the ball, and so many different players contributed in different ways to help the team. The hardest part of the game for the Sixers was to guard John Wall, who was so good and so tough to contain for Washington.
Wall actually had a team-high 28 points, eight assists, and four boards for the Wizards. Bradley Beal also played well with 25 points, six rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
But the Sixers struggled to keep the game close at the beginning, and they were fighting battles of taking a little time to gel as a cohesive unit, and also the minutes restriction to Joel Embiid early on.
Amir Johnson played quite a bit for the Sixers off the bench at center, but was not able to be that same rebounder/scorer role that Embiid plays perfectly.
In the second quarter, the Sixers out-played the Wizards and actually was able to overtake the lead and take the lead going into half time, up 59-56.
The Wizards took over in the third coming out of the locker room, and the Sixers made it a close game once again to finish out the contest.
Joel Embiid, well, he played more than expected, playing in 27 minutes on the floor. When Amir Johnson fouled out of the game, Dario Saric took over at center and then Embiid played the final five minutes of the game to give the offense a boost as the Wizards led 108-102. John Wall had taken over the game at that point, and Embiid entered to shift the momentum a little bit in the Sixers' favor.
Embiid in 27 minutes, had 18 points and 13 boards for the Sixers for his first double-double of the season, in what will be many more to come when the season is all said and done.
Embiid's counterpart for most of the game, Marcin Gortat, had a big night for the Wiz, garnering 16 points and 17 rebounds and had three blocks.
Ben Simmons looked legit and showed his ability to get to the basket with 18 points, 10 boards, five assists, and two steals. While he looks like his jump shot still needs work, he was able to get to the rim and finish layups he was unable to get during preseason.
Robert Covington though, besides his defensive effort, had a game-high 29 points, seven rebounds, two blocks, a steal, and an assist, and went 9-of-15 from the field, including a stellar 7-of-11 from downtown. You know you're stroking the three ball when 21 of your 29 points are all from behind-the-arc.
All 12 of J.J. Redick's points were from long range. He added four assists, two boards, and a steal to his totals for his Sixers debut.
And Markelle Fultz played 18 minutes off the bench for the Sixers, shooting an efficient 5-of-9 from the field for 10 points. While his free throw form still looked out of whack, he played great defense and hard offense to pace the team. He has a long way to go before he becomes the point guard the Sixers drafted him to be, but there's no reason to get worked up about his progression after this game.
The Sixers played a tough game towards the end, and until the very end, had a very real chance of stealing an Opening Night victory on the road. But it was too little too late, as the Sixers dropped their fourth straight Opening Night game, the last coming in 2013.
Robert Covington, along with Joel Embiid are my players of the game for the Sixers. Embiid was able to play 27 minutes, 11 more minutes than we expected him to play. Embiid showed that he is more than capable of coming in and playing 27 healthy minutes. A double-double to start the season is a good sign for the 23-year-old.
As for Ro-Co, there's been so much talk of Covington being an offensive liability in the past, but he showed once again why the Sixers kept him around all those years. He had a great game and there's just so much more to come, and hopefully the Sixers pay him sooner rather than later.
.@sixers F @Holla_At_Rob33’s 29 pts were most scored by PHI player in season opener since @alleniverson had 32 on 11/1/06 vs. ATL.
— Sixers Stats (@SixersStats) October 19, 2017
The Sixers will look to re-group as they play their home opener on Friday night against their division rival Boston Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center.
