The 76ers are only one game away from the Wizards, and their 132-103 victory on Saturday night seemed to almost undermine Washington’s spirit. Behind Joel Embiid’s outstanding performance-36 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals, shooting 78% from the field-Philadelphia won an undoubted third victory.

This is what I see.

Kindness

• As the series returns to Washington, Philadelphia always has the opportunity to open the door for the Wizards and return to the series. They are not a road disaster last season, but when they are on their own floor, they will definitely be much better.

But this may be the idea we needed to leave the old 76ers in the past. The appearance of the starting group seems to be that their mission is to crush the spirit of Washington once and for all. In the excellent first half of the first half, the top five players went all out. In addition to cheating by some corner shooters, their performance is outstanding and it seems that they hope to end this series as soon as possible.

• Embiid will not play another game without reminding everyone of the franchisee. Tobias Harris (Tobias Harris) dominated in the absence of the first game, Ben Simmons performed well in the second game, so the big man had to do it on Saturday Tumbled the building at night, slipped to 25 points at the end of the half, and left his mark throughout the game even if you leave his scorer aside.

But why should you ignore these vulnerabilities? In Game 3, with the old-fashioned Embiid as the attacker, Simmons (smart) gave control to the team after his center started rolling. He continued his Tottenham from beyond the three-point line in the first half, hitting three three-pointers, which laid a solid foundation for Embiid to go to work. The big man in Washington didn’t have an answer to him. Embiid used a dummy to smash people, use his strength to throw Daniel Gafford off his back, and an old-fashioned high-heeled dummy to take it. Out of the half of the highlight, it was a terrible dunk damn it was almost the same as the dunk attempt he missed earlier. As Embiid enters with the crowds on the road, it seems that he feels it is necessary to make up for half of his mistakes:

(Dwight Howard’s DX stamp at the end of this clip is the best thing he did all night, I am 100% serious.)

In short, a single-covered Embiid was a terrible decision for Scott Brooks. Keeping him relatively unwavering was one of Washington’s only positive performances in the first two games. When they stopped showing him the respect he won this year, Embiid was like a seven-foot-tall Kool Edelman (Kool Aid Man) also broke through the wall. Who can see this coming?

Obviously, life is not only more important than dunks and jump shots. Embiid is more focused on defense than at any other time in the series, he made three steals and controlled the paint only in a way he knew. When Washington put pressure on Embiid during his tenure, he continued to make strong decisions and easily scored cross-court passes.

Embiid hardly needs to play for the 76ers to participate in a sweeping situation, which is a good sign. Philadelphia was able to lead another of the Big Three to win the game in the first three games of this series, so they have accumulated momentum at the right time of the year. Before starting the next series, they seem to have got some well-deserved rest.

• Once again, Simmons was a quick starter in Philadelphia against the Wizards and continued to play well for the start of the playoffs. In this series, his situation was not particularly complicated-after he scored for Russell Westbrook, he was happy to remind him that when he made up his mind to score, these guys were too few to deal with him.

Even the Wizards player Rui Hachimura, who has the best size/strength package, is competing face-to-face with Simmons (and Tobias Harris). When Simmons played against Hachimura, he had no reason to do anything, only to pass and pass him, and Hachimura was particularly difficult on the defensive end.Again, I can’t name one that has Ok Washington time.

Once his big man started to get hot, Simmons tried his best to get him into trouble. During the transition period in the middle of the first quarter, Simmons made a quick concession with Embiid, rewarding his big man for running and helping his team get free throws during the free throw process. Games like this are much more important than the original assist numbers and more convincing. I think Simmons feels great about what he did and when he did it on Saturday.

• If Seth Curry and Danny Green shoot like they did in Saturday’s game against Washington, the 76ers are basically unbeatable. Seriously, what do you do when you can’t leave their shooters and can’t get the team’s best player into the wall alone? Basically, you will give up a lot of points and lose.

This helps two people shoot in different ways. You might think that someone will come up with a way to stop Danny Green from living in the corner, but he is the wrong person, no matter who guards him or sneaks away while he is away, they will earn Valuable real estate in exchange for his shot. He performed well in the first half, so much so that Green made the transition after only a few steps in the half, and when he missed the Wizards player out of bounds, he smiled and returned to the crowded road.

Curry is no stranger to corner kicks (or extending the free-throw line), but he and Embiid and Simmons are involved in more ball-handling moves. Handovers involving Curry are always dangerous, even if he does not pull away from the three-point line, he is still putting pressure on his opponents, asking him to make jump shots and sprint at him, and set up open shots later.

These two nights were great.

• Tobias Harris has made a solid and professional effort in this job, even if he is not very close to the leader. When he had the opportunity to attack Hachimura through the pick-and-roll and backups, he definitely tore the young forward. Otherwise, Harris focused on doing the little things right, knocking down the defensive glass, and doing his best to pull the rim away once or twice in the second half.

One of the 20 to 10 quietest performances you will see, a performance that the 76ers will get every night.

• It did not pay off in the form of high-level production of newcomers, but I like to see Rivers surpass Shake Milton to Tyrese Maxey in the first half of the year. Based on the performance of the two, this is the right choice, which shows that Rivers is willing to change the status quo and stay away from what brought them here. This is what he has been reluctant to deal with with other teams he coaches. past.

Please note that this may be the limit of his flexibility, but the flexibility is the same. A small decision like this may be the difference between winning and losing in a duel with other teams.

Bad guy

• The 76ers gave up the full-table group stage in the first round, at least in a sense that they won these games even though they used the group. I hope Rivers will cherish this moment forever, because when they team up to actually make them sweat, they can’t see the floor.

I think it’s easy to see that all the team members are struggling on the court and know that it’s not good to do so. You can look at simplified statistics such as plus/minus, and then say: “Man, they really suck!” What is hard to quantify is the snowball effect it has on Washington’s best players, who can be on the bench in Philadelphia Play against the smaller players and maintain this momentum when you return from the starter. You want to put down an opposing team and stand by their necks, while the full meeting group is basically a portable oxygen supply.

Rivers’ insistence on playing this team will be one of the main stories of entering the second round and (hopefully) surpassing. All we can do is wait and see.

• Milton is just a mess now.The river may not be special miss you As a rookie guard, but given how his sixth man is doing, I’m not sure if he has other options now.

• Philadelphia’s defensive performance is poor, but they have hardly tried to fight against a group that absolutely has to fight on the other end.

ugly

• Don’t be surprised if you hear “1,2,3, Cancun!” Walking out of the crowds in Washington on Monday night. This team is cooked.When you lost Ok There are so many games in Westbrook, you have no shots.

I don’t want to bring back the five-game series in the first round, but I think there are only 3-0 skunk rules in the first round. The Wizards need a demeanor to turn this series around. Save everyone’s trouble.

(They forgive Scott Brooks for not having to be interviewed by TNT to open the fourth quarter. That says it all.)

Follow Kyle on Twitter: @KyleNeubeck