Playoff Bell Ringer: Embiid leaves game early and Sixers fail to sweep Wizards

Sixers Bell Ringer playoff standings:

Tobias Harris - 1
Ben Simmons - 1
Joel Embiid - 1

The Sixers were unable to complete the sweep against the Washington Wizards Monday night, losing 122-114. In a vacuum, this result isn’t the end of the world. You head back home and have three more chances to win one more game. However, in addition to the game, the Sixers also lost Joel Embiid to injury. The big man took an awkward fall in the first quarter and landed hard on his back/hip area. After the opening period, he never returned to the game and Philadelphia ruled him out at halftime with “right knee soreness”. Whether it’s the knee, back, or something else, he’s the guy on the injury report the city of Philadelphia was hoping to avoid in this postseason. Now, we await word on the seriousness of this situation.

As for the rest of the game, the Sixers’ offense fell apart in the third quarter, allowing Washington to take a double-digit lead. The bench brought the team back in the fourth, and then with the game tight, the Wizards went to Hack-a-Ben in the closing minutes. Simmons made one of two each trip down, which was perfectly fine, but Philadelphia couldn’t get any stops on the defensive end and Washington pulled away. Getting the win in spite of Embiid only playing 11 minutes would have been potentially huge for his ability to rest up before the second round of the playoffs. Now, the Sixers will be back at it Wednesday night for Game 5, with or without their MVP finalist. Let’s get to Bell Ringer.

George Hill: 14 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 turnover

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George Hill had another extremely strong performance as a playoff Sixer, and I have to question why Doc Rivers only played him 22 minutes. He efficiently hit his spot-up 3s, and even knocked down a rise-and-fire 3 off a jab step in the fourth. Hill can create for himself off the dribble, and knows when to kick out to his teammates. He makes smart decisions on both ends and fits in seamlessly in any lineup. 14 points on five field goal attempts, but not on the floor for the final seven minutes of the game (and only seven second-half minutes total) — unacceptable.

Tyrese Maxey: 15 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 0 turnovers

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Having now firmly established himself as a part of the playoff rotation, Maxey was a catalyst in the big fourth-quarter surge that almost seized victory from the jaws of defeat. The rookie started off his sequence stripping Bradley Beal and taking the ball down the other way for the dunk. A couple minutes later, Maxey drove in and dropped a rainmaker floater up and over Daniel Gafford. On the next possession, he sank a long 3 from the top of the key with the shot clock winding down, and then stepped up defensively on the subsequent play, blocking Russell Westbrook, with the ball going off Russ for a turnover. It was a three-minute stretch you simply do not see very often in the playoffs from a rookie. Thanks so much for passing at the trade deadline, Toronto.

Furkan Korkmaz: 7 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 0 turnovers

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In the fourth, Korkmaz crawled, so that Maxey could fly. It was actually Furkan who kickstarted the whole comeback early in the frame. With the team down nine, Korkmaz had an 80-second sequence where he drained a 3 from the wing, sank an awkward-looking floater along the right baseline, and grabbed an offensive rebound and made the putback lay-up while getting fouled (in true Furkan fashion, he missed the and-one free throw). It was a true ‘break glass in case of emergency’ stretch for the Sixers wing.