PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia 76ers not only went through their first loss of the postseason, but the loss of their MVP candidate to injury.
Despite a double-digit fourth quarter comeback, the Sixers fell to the Washington Wizards in Game Four of their first-round Eastern Conference series, 122-114.
Philadelphia still owns a 3-1 series lead, and the teams will play Game Five on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. It will be the first time a full crowd has been allowed in the Center for a Sixers game since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sixers also have to deal with injuries to Joel Embiid — back pain from a hard fall he took in the first quarter, and the right knee problem that took him out of the contest after scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds in 11 minutes of play.
The game was also marred by the second fan incident during this series, as a fan ran onto the court.
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Philadelphia got hot early, starting with a run powered by the star player whom many criticized for his supposed lack of offense, Ben Simmons.
The injury to Embiid happened soon afterward, in the latter half of the first quarter. He was taken to the locker room near the end of a first quarter where the Sixers led by three, 31-28.
Embiid did not return to the game with a knee issue.
Philadelphia fended off a pesky Wizards squad with 15 first-half points from Davis Bertans and a critical end-of-half three-pointer from Danny Green to take a 61-60 lead to the locker room.
Bradley Beal's big third quarter led to a 92-80 Washington lead after three quarters, but a furious early fourth-quarter rally led by the energy of Tyrese Maxey cut Washington's advantage to one.
Philadelphia tied the game at 106-all with four minutes left, but Washington responded late to put the game away.
Russell Westbrook helped save the Wizards' season with a triple-double, producing 19 points, 21 rebounds and 14 points. Bradley Beal led Washington with 27 points, while Tobias Harris powered the Sixers' attack with 21 to go with 13 rebounds.
The status of Embiid will be updated before Wednesday's game. Coach Doc Rivers believes his squad may have been trying too hard on the offensive end to make up for Embiid's absence.
"I thought we were offensively very impatient," said Rivers. "I thought of the four games, this was the first game where each guy was trying to will the game for us. When you have 12 blocked shots, at some point, you're taking pretty bad shots."
The Sixers took enough strong shots to rally from a 12-point deficit, but the Wizards pulled ahead in the closing minutes. Part of the reason was because of their decision to foul Ben Simmons, who finished with 13 points. Simmons went just five-for-11 at the free throw line as he was fouled on purpose because of his shooting struggles. When it was suggested Simmons could have been benched in the closing minutes, the coach came to Simmons' defense.
"We’re going to keep him on the floor," Rivers said. "Unless you guys want us to bench him for the whole game. If anybody wants us to do that, let me know, then I’ll know you don’t know basketball."
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Simmons took his share of responsibility for the defeat and knows there were plenty of mistakes on both ends of the court. Simmons also believes several questionable calls affected the team's mindset during the game.
"I think we lost our cool with the refs too much and the officiating," said Simmons. "We’ve got to help, and it starts on defense. There were a lot of possessions where we weren’t connected or talking or communicating on the floor with defense."
The Sixers are hoping to have Embiid back for Game 5, but there are no guarantees considering Embiid's injury history. Players such as Danny Green know they have to prepare for not having their big man, but Green also believes they are more than capable of closing out this series even if Embiid remains sidelined.
"It’s obviously not easy," Green said. "We’re going to need him to be the last team standing to win, but that doesn’t mean we can’t win this series or the next game without him, or other games without him."
The winner of this series battles the winner of the Atlanta Hawks-New York Knicks first-rounder. Atlanta owns a 3-1 advantage entering Wednesday night's Game Five in New York.