After the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Washington Wizards on March 12, Wizards star Bradley Beal singled out Sixers star Joel Embiid for what went wrong for the Wizards in the second half.
“Embiid. He’s doing that to everybody, so. I mean, you gotta give up something, you know?” . “He’s going to bury you in the paint. He’s going to take our bigs out to the perimeter, put us in rotations because we got to double him or give him mid-range jumpers. We gave him mid-range [jumpers], and he hit them.”
Though the Sixers pulled off a 112-93 victory, they have split their season series against the Wizards at 2-2.
Damian Lillard Calls Out Sixers
Portland Trail Blazers’ star Damian Lillard called out the Sixers for not supporting former Sixer Matisse Thybulle before they traded him to Portland.
Lillard explained to Justin Grasso of Sports Illustrated that a team having support for a player can be very helpful in their progression. He believes Portland has provided that since trading for Thybulle and does not believe Philadelphia did that.
“Sometimes you just need that support, you need that love, you need people to believe in you, and I’ve seen it make a world of difference for a lot of players,” Lillard said. “It’s hard being in this league fighting, trying to earn your stay, and you’re in an environment where people don’t believe in you. It just makes it that much harder. I just wanted to encourage (Thybulle) [and] show my belief in him.”
Thybulle’s role on the Trail Blazers is much bigger compared to the role he had with the Sixers before the trade. In 49 games with the Sixers this season, Thybulle averaged 12.1 minutes a game, compared to the Trail Blazers where he’s averaging 29 minutes a game in 12 games thus far.
At the same time, Portland has to decide if they want to keep Thybulle around for the long haul since he will be approaching restricted free agency this summer.
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Source:: Heavy.com