Instant observations: Paul George drops 39 points to lead Sixers past Wizards
· Yahoo Sports
Paul George dropped 39 points to set his Sixers career high on Wednesday, leading the Sixers past the pitiful Wizards in a 153-131 victory to close out Philadelphia’s three-game road trip.
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Here’s what I saw.
Paul George is COOKING
The Sixers’ road trip was always destined for a bit of a letdown game in Washington after two high-stakes battles against play-in teams. A date with the hapless Wizards before returning home for a back-to-back against the Wolves and Pistons? Certainly wasn’t going to be their best effort and performance of the season.
Even by those standards, the first half of this game was an absolute trainwreck. Their apathy jumped off the screen for 24 consecutive minutes to start the night, with the Wizards doing whatever they wanted on offense, even with most of their talent injured and unavailable. Washington created constant dribble penetration from every spot on the floor, with the Sixers not too interested in cutting drives off at the point of attack. Communication breakdowns happened at a breakneck pace, with Sixers players calling for switches in situations that gave their teammates zero chance to make a play. Quentin Grimes had the nerve to ask for a switch in transition, which led to three different Sixers standing and doing nothing as the Wizards picked up a wide-open dunk during the breakdown.
It was so bad that you almost had to ask if the team was responding (negatively!) to Joel Embiid’s passive-aggressive battle with the franchise over Twitter, suggesting that he was held out of the game against his will after missing their morning shootaround. Even 20% effort on defense should be enough to stay connected and get consistent stops against this version of the Wiz.
Mercifully, the Sixers absolutely carved up Washington on offense, holding a narrow lead at halftime mostly thanks to the efforts of Mr. Paul George. The veteran wing was absolutely sensational, 9/12 from the field with a few free throws sprinkled in to bring his first half total to 24 points. Washington just couldn’t figure out what to do with him, and I felt bad for the rookie Will Riley, who George abused in every which way. He went through him for layups at the rim, over him for pull-up threes, and toyed with him a bit from the midrange, lulling him to sleep with crossovers before hitting a stepback jumper that Riley couldn’t get to.
It was wonderful to see that the team was indeed allowed to try on defense as George’s onslaught continued in the second half. The Sixers did a better job of guarding one-on-one, and the Wizards didn’t do a whole heck of a lot other than isolating to open the second half, creating a lot of walk-up opportunities for George against a scrambling Wizards defense. The type of shot and possession ultimately did not matter — he was hitting nothing but net on spot-ups from the corner, pull-ups from the trail spots, and the occasional bully ball drive was the cherry on top. By the time he had finished up, George had scored 39 points for his best scoring game of the season, and the best scoring game of his Sixers tenure.
George looking this good in his first week on the floor after the suspension is way more important than anything else that has happened in the same time period. It was one thing for him to sit at a press conference and claim that he was aided by the time off, and another to see him exploding past and through defenders with regularity. Even if some of this is driven by tough shotmaking, which is unsustainable by its nature, he looks better physically than at any other point in the last two years. That would meaningfully change Philadelphia’s floor and ceiling in the playoffs, assuming they can do the work to get into the playoffs.
What else was fun?
I could certainly fault Maxey for his own defensive shortcomings in this one, but I suppose I’d rather celebrate an ultra-efficient night on offense from a guy still learning to play with the pinky injury. When the Sixers got their rare first-half stops, Maxey was the guy taking advantage of almost every single one, zooming down the floor to beat his teammates and the opponent in a race to the opposing basket. With George absolutely cooking, there was no real reason for Maxey to press the issue in the halfcourt. When he did, Maxey overpowered the Wizards again and again, putting together an 11/15 evening inside the arc.
If we’re looking for little things to savor within this laugher of a game, Maxey went up and punched one with his right hand in the first half, confident enough in his pinky to not worry about any pain or suffering that would come after. The beauty of their dominant, 47-point third should have been that Maxey was able to hit the showers after just three quarters of work, saving some minutes and wear-and-tear for a critical back-to-back this weekend. Nick Nurse, for some ungodly reason, decided Maxey and George would both check back in with around half of the fourth left and the Sixers up by 19 points. I don’t really understand what goes through the coach’s mind sometimes, but
VJ Edgecombe wasn’t so lucky, as he had to lead the team during the bench minutes to open the fourth. But he took advantage of those minutes to add to the scoring total after playing a perfectly restrained game as the third option before the fourth. The rookie gutted the Wizards as a slasher in early offense, scoring multiple acrobatic finishes. He combined with Maxey for a very funny lob finish in transition in the third quarter, with Edgecombe unable to climb the ladder and dunk it, but somehow tipping it in by accident on the failed catch.
Otherwise, Edgecombe made the right reads and moved the ball away from what little pressure the Wizards offered, racking up assists as his buddies bombed away on Washington. His catch-and-shoot jumpers were picture-perfect, and after a long slump from deep to open 2026, the rookie has found his footing as we inch closer to the postseason.
Philadelphia’s bench was pretty mediocre on the whole, but oh well!
Other notes
— A game like this makes the case that the regular season should be about 10 games shorter. No reason anyone should be watching Sixers-Wizards on April 1st.