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Tim BontempsESPN
Bradley Beal might have set a career-high 60 points Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, but that did nothing to improve his mood following the Washington Wizards’ 141-136 loss to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“I’m pissed off,” Beal said. “I’m angry. I don’t count [them]. … All the peaks of my career, they’ve been defeated. So I don’t care. You can throw it out the window with the other two or three I got.
“I just want to win. Sometimes you might be able to score 40, 50, 60, whatever the case, but I just want to win, whatever it is. We’ve been a little short tonight.”
Beal was on fire for the first three quarters, amassing 57 points in the first 36 minutes of the game. But after Washington made up for a 10-point deficit to start the fourth quarter with Beal on the bench, he came back with the Wizards tied at 119 with 7 minutes, 50 seconds left.
From that point on, however, Beal took just one shot and then split a pair of meaningless free throws in the final 10 seconds with the game well out of reach, as Philadelphia – who shot 61.7% from the field and went 18-for-29 (62.1%) from a distance of 3 points – hit enough shots to finally pull off a high scoring slugfest.
“I think they got saves and made more plays than we did in the streak,” Beal said, when asked what the difference was late. “I think [Joel] Embiid hit a hard 3 … they were doing a lot of hits. They hit a lot of hard knocks.
“They shot 60% from the field and 62% of 3. You can’t win a game like this.”
For Beal, the afternoon leading up to the game was consumed by events in Washington, where crowds of people supporting President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Beal has made Washington his home for more than eight years since the Wizards won it third in the 2012 NBA Draft. He said it was hard to see what was going on and not think about how things would have been different if the people who stormed the Capitol had been black.
Sixers coach Doc Rivers and Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce echoed the sentiment earlier Wednesday.
“It’s very emotional,” Beal said. “It’s very disheartening in many ways, because the lack of a sense of urgency to respond to the protesters and the Black Lives Matter this summer was just obvious. the same problem. “
Earlier Wednesday, Beal retweeted a message from President Trump from the summer when Trump said anyone violating federal property during the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, would face 10 years in prison.
“So we’ll see if he’s got his foot in his mouth or it’s something that he really, really stands for,” Beal said. “Because of the people invading our Capitol … they invaded the Capitol. It’s unheard of.
“It’s disheartening that we’re here with the country.”
Beal, who added he was frustrated with the decision not to indict officers involved in Jacob Blake’s shooting in Kenosha, Wis. Last summer, said patience would be needed to embrace the change that he and so many other members of the NBA community have passed. so much time to fight.
“We continue to have the good fight,” Beal said. “We keep putting ourselves in front of these lawmakers and politicians and we keep throwing the hammer at the changes made, but most important is the P word – patience. The changes will not happen overnight. understand what it looks like and what it means.
“Patience will be required.”
The Sixers, meanwhile, improved to a league-best 7-1 thanks to another stellar performance from Embiid, who finished with 38 points on an 11-for-20 shot – after missing his first six shots. – to accompany 8 rebounds. , 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks in 37 minutes.
And, typically, Embiid didn’t really shy away from crediting himself with dragging the Sixers to victory with one big play after another.
“They are paying me to resume the game,” Embiid said. “They pay me to dominate. It’s my job.
“I always give credit to my teammates. [But] I’m finished.”
Meanwhile, Embiid’s longtime nemesis Russell Westbrook left the game in the last minute and went straight to the locker room, grabbing his right hand. After the game, Westbrook said he had dislocated a finger and wasn’t sure if that would cause him to miss a moment.
“It hurts,” said Westbrook, who finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 12 assists in 39 minutes. “But I’m fine.”
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