By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly Editor 
The Philadelphia 76ers (1-9) are back home on Wednesday night for a match-up with the Washington Wizards (2-7) in what looks like a very winnable game. That being said, the Sixers will be without center Joel Embiid as tonight is the first game of a back-to-back for the team. He'll be back in action tomorrow against Karl-Anthony Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves on TNT. Jahlil Okafor will be available for both games.
The Sixers are coming off of a lopsided 27-point loss at the hands of James Harden and the Houston Rockets. Harden scored 23 points in the first quarter and Philadelphia was unable to get very close for the majority of the game. Joel Embiid tallied his fourth double double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Jahlil Okafor had his most forgettable game of the year en route to being benched during most of the second half for Richaun Holmes. Okafor missed nine of his 11 shots from the floor and looked to take a step back defensively after showing some signs of improvement earlier in the week. The Sixers as a team shot just 37.8 percent from the floor and 22.7 percent from beyond the arc. Over their last few games, long range shooting has kept Philadelphia in games, so their struggles from three-point land showed in the final score.
Washington is off to a bad start as well, losing seven of nine to begin the year. John Wall is slowly but surely recovering from surgery on both knees back in May. Like Joel Embiid, he has not been cleared to play on consecutive nights for the Wizards, who host the Knicks on Thursday in the second half of their back-to-back. Wall leads the team in in scoring and assists with 22.3 points and 8.3 assists per game. He's averaged 18.6 points, 9.2 assists and 5.1 rebounds in 22 games against the Sixers in his career. Bradley Beal, another integral part of the Wizards offense, has missed the last two games with right hamstring tightness and will not play tonight. Washington lost to Dwayne Wade and the Chicago Bulls 106-95 on Saturday.
| Matchup Preview | November 16, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Washington Wizards (2-7, 0-4 Away) |
Philadelphia 76ers (1-9, 1-5 Home) |
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Quotable:
Gerald Henderson on frustration following the Sixers loss in Houston:
“I don’t really look at our team and say, ‘Alright, we’ll be good down the road because this guy has talent.' We have enough to compete right now. So we just need to give better effort.” [CSNPhilly.com]
Marcin Gortat on the Wizards bench after their loss to Chicago:
"I think there’s a lot of things we can do better. I think right now, as far as I know, I think we’ve got one of the worst benches in the league right now.” [CSNPhilly.com]
Brett Brown on Joel Embiid's performance against the Rockets:
“You look at the box score and you look at the plus-minus in a game that was lopsided, Joel still comes out with a plus-3 and that’s with six turnovers,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “You’re seeing something very unique in Joel Embiid.
“He is the anchor of our defense, the focal part of our offense,” Brown said. “Those types of things having him lead us in. We continue to see really good things from him.” [CSNPhilly.com]
Broadcast Information:
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
TV: CSN
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Stream Live: CSNPhilly.com, NBC Sports Live Extra
