Sixers Bell Ringer: Game 22 - Sixers lose 10th straight game in DC

For a refresher on our Bell Ringer series, take a look back at our first post of the season.

Bell Ringer Standings

Josh Richardson - 5
Joel Embiid - 4
Ben Simmons - 4
Tobias Harris - 4
Furkan Korkmaz - 1
Al Horford - 1
Matisse Thybulle - 1
James Ennis - 1

Entering play Thursday night, the Sixers hadn’t won in Washington, D.C. since 2013. Following the Sixers’ 119-113 loss to the Wizards, that ignominious stat will continue to hang over the team until at least April 3, 2020. Davis Bertans’ six first-half 3-pointers helped propel Washington to a 10-point halftime lead, and the Sixers never made it closer than a 5-point game in the second half, as Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons combined for 15 turnovers on the evening. Let’s look at a handful of things that didn’t go wrong with our Bell Ringer candidates:

Tobias Harris: 33 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover

Thursday night’s game was the culmination of fans’ wishes for Tobias Harris to be more aggressive. Harris’ 28 field goal attempts (he made 13) were a career-high by a large margin, topping his previous high of 24. It was also only the third game this season Tobias has attempted eight or more 3-pointers (making three). His 3-pointer with just under 4 points left briefly cut the deficit to five points.

It all resulted in a Sixers-high 33 points for Harris, who was one of the few Sixers to recognize the Wizards as one of the worst defensive teams in the league and have no qualms attacking the rim for a handful of throwdowns. When he wasn’t looking for his own shot, Tobi found his teammates while taking care of the ball. On one play, he had a nice find of a wide-open Ben Simmons under the basket when faced with a double-team out of the post.

Matisse Thybulle: 5 points, 1 rebound, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 0 turnovers

Brett Brown’s confidence in the rookie out of Washington continues to grow, as Matisse received a career-high 31 minutes. Thybulle had four stocks — both of his steals came on good reads to deflect passes from off the ball, while on his two blocks, he got a piece of 3-point attempts by Mo Wagner and Davis Bertans. Likely most encouraging for Brett, Matisse only committed two personal fouls and was rarely out of place due to over-gambling.

Offensively, Thybulle’s six assists doubled his previous career-high of three. Matisse made some great plays off the dribble, finding Joel Embiid for a pocket pass in the lane or finding Furkan Korkmaz in the corner for a triple. On a nightly basis, you see more of the former Huskies’ game round into form.

Raul Neto: 11 points, 1 rebound, 1 turnover

Neto had a hot hand in the nation’s capital, going 4-of-5 from the field and 3-of-4 from 3, including a pull-up triple from the top of the key at the end of third quarter. I was surprised Brown didn’t ride the hot hand for more than just 12 minutes of playing time; Raul and Ben Simmons have yet to play a full minute together, and would seem to be a combination the Sixers head coach might want to give a look. Philadelphia could use all the perimeter creation possible, like we saw from Raul on this play:

Joel Embiid: 26 points, 21 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 8 turnovers

I feel compelled to include Embiid on this list, since 20-20 games don’t exactly grow on trees, but this was the definition of an empty-calorie stat line. Joel should have scored at will against the likes of Mo Wagner, but instead mostly slept walked on both ends of the court. Three of his eight turnovers came in the fourth quarter when the Sixers had a chance to charge back into things and Embiid was too nonchalant and sloppy with his dribble. Let’s try to move past this one for Joel and acknowledge the overall body of work: