76ers - Wizards, 2021-05-23 NBA Playoffs game preview

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The 2020/2021 NBA Playoffs kick off on Sunday with the Philadelphia 76ers, the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference, taking on the No.8 seed Washington Wizards. The Wizards defeated the Pacers of Sabonis to secure 8th place, but are unlikely to have much hope in this series. We will take a look at both teams and provide a prediction for Game 1, so please read to the end.  
Embiid 76ers

76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers finished in first place in the Eastern Conference (49-23) and meet the potentially weakest team in the playoffs, the Washington Wizards, in the first round. It's going to be an interesting series, and although Philadelphia has won every meeting this season, the Wizards have been playing better and better as the season has progressed.

Embiid has been the leading scorer for Philadelphia all season long - the Cameroonian is one of the 3 MVP candidates, and his stats speak for themselves: ~28 pts., ~11 rebounds. 11 points per game and first place in the conference. The 76ers' second leading scorer, B. Simmons, has seen his stats drop a bit this season, with just 14 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in 32 minutes. This is far too low for a player with such potential. Other 76ers starting five and rotation players have shown better play this season compared to previous seasons, including T. Harris (~20 pts/game) and Shake Milton (13 pts/game)

Before the season, there were rumours that the 76ers needed to decide which player to build the team around, B. Simmons or J. Embiid, but the organisation decided to keep both players and try to win the trophy with the current roster. For both players, the playoffs add extra pressure, as another poor performance would surely lead to one of them having to say goodbye to Philly.

Washington Wizards

Wizards

The Washington Wizards (34-38) finished the regular season in 8th place in the standings and had to play for a playoff spot in an extra tournament. In the play-offs, the Wizards lost 100-118 to the Boston Celtics, but defeated the Indiana Pacers, led by Domantas Sabonis, 142-115 in the deciding game to end the season.

The Washington Wizards have slowly become one of the more interesting teams in the league this season - the season started off with a rough start, with the Wizards languishing at the bottom of the standings for a while, but as the season has progressed, both Westbrook and the Wizards have started to play much better. The Wizards are one of the NBA's fastest-paced teams, and Westbrook, one of the league's most athletic players, is comfortable in this style of play, as evidenced by his stats: averaging a triple-double for the third season in a row.

Looking at the lineup, the Wizards don't look like a team that can challenge one of the league's strongest teams, but both Westbrook and Beal have been undervalued too many times to pay attention to projections. The Wizards' success will largely depend on these two players, and while it would be naive to expect them to win the series, a good performance by the team's leaders could lead to at least 1-2 victories.

Forecast

The 76ers are the clear favourites to win the series and it's hard to imagine how they could manage to lose this series. Philadelphia has great shooters, strength under the basket, a pretty solid defence and an MVP candidate who can take the lead at the right time. Meanwhile, the Wizards' strengths are a duo of individually very capable guards and a high-tempo game. Anyway, the 76ers are not going to win the playoffs on offense alone, and in the first game of the series the 76ers should be able to "precipitate" the chaos of the Wizards and win by a double-digit margin.

76ers -7,5, 1,95 kof., betsafe

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