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Tim BontempsESPN
Bradley Beal may have set a career record with 60 points on Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, but it did nothing to improve his mood after the Washington Wizards’ 141-136 defeat at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.
“I’m upset,” said Beal. “I’m mad. I don’t count [them]. … Any of the highlights of my career, they suffered losses. So, I don’t give a shit. You can throw it out the window with the other two or three I’ve had.
“I just want to win. Sometimes you can get 40, 50, 60, whatever the case may be, but I just want to win, anyway. We fell a little short of tonight.”
Beal was on fire in the first three quarters, scoring 57 points in the first 36 minutes of the game. But after Washington accumulated a 10-point handicap to start the fourth period with Beal on the bench, he returned with the Wizards tied at 119 with 7 minutes, 50 seconds left for the game.
From that point on, however, Beal made just one shot and then split a pair of meaningless free throws in the final 10 seconds with the game well out of reach, like Philadelphia – who shot 61.7% of the field and made 18 for -29 (62.1%) in the 3-point range – hit enough shots to eventually get a high score slugfest.
“I think they stopped and made more plays than us in the final stretch,” said Beal, when asked about the difference in delay. “I think [Joel] Embiid hit a tough 3 … they were making a lot of shots. They hit a lot of hard shots.
“They hit 60% of the field and 62% of 3. You can’t win a game like that.”
For Beal, the afternoon before the game was consumed by events in Washington, where a crowd of people who support President Donald Trump invaded the United States Capitol.
Beal has lived in Washington for more than eight years, since the Wizards took him third overall in the 2012 NBA draft. He said it was difficult to see what was going on and not to think about how things would have been different if the people who invaded the Capitol were black.
Sixers coach Doc Rivers and Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce echoed the sentiment on Wednesday.
“It is very exciting,” said Beal. “It is very disheartening in many ways, because only the lack of a sense of urgency was to respond to what was happening against the protesters and Black Lives Matter during the summer. That was a direct highlight from all over the world. They all addressed the same problem. . “
Earlier on Wednesday, Beal retweeted a post from President Trump of the summer, when Trump said anyone who violated federal property during the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, would face 10 years in prison.
“Let’s see if he has his foot in his mouth or if it is something he really stands for,” said Beal. “Because of the people who were invading our Capitol … they invaded the Capitol. It’s unheard of.
“It is disheartening that we are here with the country.”
Beal, who added that he was frustrated with the decision not to accuse the officers involved in the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin last summer, said it will take patience to implement the change he and many others within the NBA community have gone through so much. fighting time.
“We continue to fight for the good fight,” said Beal. “We continue to introduce ourselves to these legislators and politicians and hammer the changes that are being made, but the main thing is the word with P – patience. The changes will not happen overnight. To understand what it is like and what it means.
“It will take patience.”
The Sixers, meanwhile, improved to the best 7-1 in the league thanks to another stellar performance by Embiid, who finished with 38 points from 11 of 20 shots – after missing his first six shots – to go along with 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks in 37 minutes.
And, typically, Embiid was not exactly shy about taking credit for dragging the Sixers to victory with one big move after another in the final stretch.
“They pay me to take over the game,” said Embiid. “They pay me to dominate. This is my job.
“I always give credit to my teammates. [But] I finished.”
Meanwhile, Embiid’s longtime foe, Russel Westbrook, left the game in the final minute and went straight to the locker room while grabbing his right hand. After the game, Westbrook said he dislocated a finger and was unsure whether it would require him to fail at any time.
“It hurt,” said Westbrook, who finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 12 assists in 39 minutes. “But I will be fine.”