'Best' and 'Worst' awards: Sixers vs. Wizards
My look at some of the best and worst performances from the Washington Wizards' 116-102 victory over the 76ers Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center:
Best performance: Any person in his right mind knows John Wall wins this by a landslide. The Wizards point guard flat out dominated the Sixers. He made a game-high five three-pointers en route to finihing wth 24 points in Washington's first win of the season. He also had a game-high nine assists, three rebounds, a steal, a blocked shot and two steals in 35 minutes, 49 seconds.
Worst performance: Watching Thaddeus Young play was like watching someone play in slow motion. The Sixers power forward, couldn't sustain a good start. Young finished with 7 points on 3 of 11 shooting. He missed his final eight shot attempts. Defensively, Young was overmatched while attempting to guard center Marcin Gortat. The 6-foot-11 scored 19 points on 8-for-12 shooting.
Best defensive performance: It seems crazy to give this award to a SIxer in a lopsided loss. But no one can deny what Spencer Hawes did to get this award. The center blocked two shots and had a steal. Eleven of his 13 rebounds came on the defensive end.
Best performance by a Sixer: Hawes also gets this one. The 7-1 post player bounced back from Monday's subpar performance against Golden State with a double-double. He had 23 points to go with his 13 rebounds. Hawes also finished with five assists and made 2 of 4 three-pointers.
Best statistic: This award goes to the Wizards' three-pointer shooting. Washington made 18 threes to tie the Wells Fargo Center record that the Seattle SuperSonics set on Nov. 16, 2004. We all know what Wall did. Martell Webster (four three-pointers), Trevor Ariza (three), Bradley Beal (three), Al Harrington (two) and Eric Maynor (one) made the Wizards' other three-pointers.
Worst statistic: This goes to the Sixers' turnovers. They had 20 giveaways. Keeping the ball was perhaps the one thing Hawes couldn't do. He had a game-high six turnovers, Darius Morris was second on the team with three.
Not quite Worst of the Worst but close: The Sixers lack of bench points wins this award. The reserves were outscored, 31-16, in bench points. Dan Orton's five points were the most by a Sixers' backup. That's not good, considering he left the game in the second quarter with right knee soreness. Sixth man Tony Wroten had a performance he wants to erase. The guard finished with two points on 1-for-6 shooting (0-for-3 on three-pointers). Wroten averaged 12.3 points heading into the game.
Worst of the worst: I had to give this to the Sixers perimeter defense. They left shooters WIDE open to focus on the paint. As a result, they were burned for the second consecutive game.The Sixers gave up 33 threes in consecutive losses to Golden State and Washington. It's going to be a long season if the Sixers can't correct this.
- Keith Pompey
Follow and contact Inquirer 76ers beat writer Keith Pompey on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers