Embiid, Simmons lead rout

Shorthanded Washington falters with Howard, Porter out

PHILADELPHIA — The Washington Wizards had issues. On Friday night, their starting small forward was not in town and missed the game for personal reasons while their biggest offseason acquisition spent the morning on a surgeon’s table in California.

Even so, the Wizards’ fresh problems did not excuse another lackluster performance in a123-98 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

As Coach Scott Brooks listed all the reasons behind the Sixers’ dominant performance, in which they led throughout the game and built a 35-point lead in the third quarter, he settled on one truth.

“They outplayed us,” Brooks said, after his team fell to 8-14 on the season.

Had it not been for the early rotation minutes for rookie Troy Brown Jr., who played rare meaningful minutes since Otto Porter Jr. missed the game for a family matter, and the reappearance of backup center Ian Mahinmi, this game would have seemed like any other night. However, the classic traits of a Wizards’ loss were evident: a poor start leading to a double-digit hole in the first quarter, poor rebounding and sour attitudes and indiscoverable traces of consistent defense.

Brooks burned timeouts in the first half to stop the inevitable, but his huddles did little to speak effort into existence. At the 10:38 mark of the second quarter, Jimmy Butler knocked the ball out of Markieff Morris’s hands and after he streaked downcourt for the easy layup and 18-point lead, Brooks called time. But less than two minutes later, Wilson Chandler drilled an open threepointer and extended Philadelphia’s lead to 44-23, Brooks once again

TV: walked onto the floor and sought a break.

The strategies and pep talks didn’t work, and neither did the individual labors of a few.

Bradley Beal tried to show control by example, keeping a steady demeanor and playing hard while on the floor, until those times he received a spell and finally the pained expression of frustration could rest on his face. Although Beal hit half of his10 attempts in the first half and the Wizards were only minus-1 while he was on the floor, the team went into intermission trailing, 68-46.

“Just go out there and compete,” John Wall said. ‘I mean, we’ve just got to be locked in. Usually, we are a team that usually plays slow in the third quarters, but we’ve just got to do a better job playing better to start games off. We’re digging ourselves too big a hole to try to fight back.”

Wall logged more first-half minutes than any player on the floor but his presence did not settle the game. Instead, Wall played in a state of annoyance — upset with officials and later by Sixers backup guard T.J. McConnell. With less than six minutes to play in the second quarter, Wall powered through the paint for a layup but when he did not hear a whistle indicating a foul, he slapped his hands at official Tyler Ford and received his fifth technical foul, the second most in the NBA.

“Howmany free throws did I shoot today?” Wall asked a reporter rhetorically while responding to a question about what led to his technical foul.

When someone piped in with the correct answer of two free throws, Wall completed his explanation.

“There’s your answer,” he said. “I got a tech for clapping my hands.”

In the closing seconds of the half, Wall took aim at McConnell, quite literally, and shoulder-checked the 6-foot-2, 190-pound guard into the baseline seats as the two players raced downcourt. McConnell was called for the foul, then Wall and McConnell engaged in conversation — neither player smiling — until the halftime buzzer. Wall described the play as a test to see if he would get a call in his favor. When a reporter asked a follow-up question about Wall addressing officials before games to help his cause, he did not seem amenable to the idea.

“I have nothing to say to them. I have nothing to say to them,” Wall responded. “I have no respect for them. Simple as that. I get the same excuse every time. Just because I’m stronger than everybody I don’t get those calls. I have no respect for them. They do their job, I do my job. I have nothing to say about them, or nothing nice to say towards them.”

Wall and the rest of the normal starters played sparsely in the second half. Once the lead ballooned to 111-76, it was unnecessary for the heavyrotation players to log any more minutes on the first night of their back-to-back. Besides, the Wizards will have Saturday to repeat their usual routine.

On Friday morning, the Wizards learned that Dwight Howard will remain on the sidelines for at least the next two to three months. Howard underwent back surgery in Los Angeles with the same surgeon who had repaired his herniated disc in 2012 and the team announced he will be reevaluated in late January.

Although Howard appeared in only nine games, his 9.2 rebounds per game led the team. If Friday served as an indication, then the Wizards will face a tough winter without Howard manning the glass. The Sixers outrebounded Washington 58-42.

“Everybody got to chip in more and more, John and I as well. Guards, wings, everybody,” Beal said about team rebounding in light of losing Howard. “Because rebounding is where we suck at. You know, even myself. I don’t think I had a damn rebound tonight. We got to be a lot better in all aspects. Nowthat big fella is out, everybody has to step up a lot more.”

Also, Porter was not with the team and in his place Jeff Green stepped in for his first start of the season. Green, however, played despite lower back spasms and contributed just four points and three rebounds. The Wizards starting frontcourt of Green and Kelly Oubre Jr. combined for 10 points and second-year center Thomas Bryant only reached double figures in garbage time.