WASHINGTON — Are the 76ers closing in on their first playoff series sweep in 30 years? Or will the Washington Wizards somehow find a way to extend the series?
We’ll find out 7 p.m. Monday in Game 4 of their opening-round series. The Sixers took a commanding 3-0 advantage in the best-of-seven competition with a 132-103 Game 3 victory at Capital One Arena.
“After three games, if the series is 2-1, it literally can’t be any closer,” coach Doc Rivers said before the game. “It really tells you have the advantage in the series if you go up 3-0.”
No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series. Only three series have gone to a seventh game after one team opened with a 3-0 lead.
The last time the Sixers swept an opponent was when they beat the Milwaukee Bucks three-games-to-none in a best-of-five first-round series in 1991. The last time they swept a best-of-seven series was when they prevailed four-games-to-none in the second round against the Bucks in 1985. The first-round playoff series went to the best-of-seven format in 2003.
On this night, there were close to 10,000 in attendance. However, a sizable portion were vocal Sixers fan. They even chanted "MVP" when Sixers center Joel Embiid, an MVP finalist, was at the foul line.
But that didn’t stop the Wizards fans in the building.
Embiid faked a pass to Seth Curry before blowing by Wizards reserve center Daniel Gafford at the 3-point line. After driving the lane, Embiid was fouled by Gafford while dunking the ball. Before going to the foul line, Embiid walked over to the corner of the court. He was cupping his hands up to ears to encourage boos from the Washington fans.
Embiid gave the fans who made the two-plus-hour drive from Philly a lot to cheer about. The four-time All-Star finished with a career playoff-high 36 points to go with eight rebounds and three steals. Twenty-five of his points came in the first half. He played just 27 minutes, 54 seconds.
Tobias Harris finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. And Ben Simmons added 14 points, nine assists, and five rebounds.
The Wizards were paced by their standout backup of Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook had 26 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists after being a game-time decision with a sprained right ankle. Beal finished with 25 points.
The Wizards shook up the rotation as a way to combat the Sixers’ height advantage with 7-foot-2 Embiid, 6-11 Simmons, and 6-8 Harris.
In the first two games, the Wizards started 6-1 guard Raul Neto to play alongside Westbrook (6-3) and Beal (6-3) in the backcourt. On Saturday, 6-foot-10 forward Davis Bertans took the place of Neto, a former Sixer, in the lineup.
That enabled the Wizards to size up with the Sixers with a frontcourt of Bertans, Rui Hachimura (6-8), and center Alex Len (7-0). Bertans gave them someone who can stretch the floor in the starting lineup.
Bertans had zero points on 0-for-4 shooting to go with zero assists, zero rebounds, zero steals, and zero blocks while fouling out in 24 minutes in Game 2. But Bertans had 14 points while making 4 of 8 3-pointers in Game 1. He’s a career 40.7% 3-point shooter.
“We definitely need threes from everyone,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said before the game. “And he’s our best three-point shooter. We just need a good DB all-around game, and he’s very capable of it.
“He didn’t play well last game. Nor did we as a team myself included. ... He’s a good player. He’s due for a good night.”
So the Wizards had Bertans guarding Harris at the beginning. Hachimura was on Simmons and Len continued to guard Embiid.
That didn’t work out well.
Simmons began the game by putting on another attack-the-rim clinic. He scored six of the Philly’s first 12 points. His sixth point came on a dunk. Curry was double-teamed near the 3-point line and drilled the ball to Simmons underneath the basket for the easy dunk.
The Wizards made some adjustments, but the Sixers had a 36-28 lead after one quarter. They shot 52% from the field and benefitted from the Wizards missing eight of nine 3-point attempts.
The Sixers went on lead to 72-58 at intermission. Then, they had a commanding 27-point lead in the third quarter.
Bertans finished with eight points on 2-for-6 shooting and was a minus-34.
