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Tim good morningESPN
Bradley Beal could have set a career high of 60 points Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, but that did nothing to improve his mood following the 141-136 loss of the Washington Wizards at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“I’m annoyed,” Beal said. “I’m upset. I don’t care [them]. … Any of my biggest careers, they lost. So I don’t give a fuck. You can just throw it out the window with the other two or three I had.
“I just want to win. Sometimes you could score 40, 50, 60, whatever, but I just want to win, whatever that looks like. I came a little short tonight.”
Beal’s 60 points also equaled the Wizards’ franchise record set by Gilbert Arenas in 2006. He was on fire in the first three quarters, pouring 57 points in the first 36 minutes of the game. But after Washington made up a 10-point deficit to start the fourth quarter with Beal on the bench, he returned to the Wizards tied at 119 with 7 minutes left, 50 seconds left in the game.
However, from that moment on, Beal made a single shot and then shared a pair of meaningless free throws in the last 10 seconds, with the game at hand, like Philadelphia – which shot 61.7% of the field and passed 18 -29 (62.1%) 3-point range – hit enough shots to finally pull off a high-scoring slugfest.
“I think they stopped and played more games than us along the way,” Beal said when asked what the difference was late. “I guess [Joel] Embiid hit a 3 hard … they were taking a lot of pictures. They hit a lot of hard blows.
“They shot 60% of the field and 62% of 3. You can’t win such a game.”
For Beal, the afternoon that led to the game was consumed by the events in Washington, where a lot of people who support President Donald Trump stormed the US Chapter.
Beal has made his home in Washington for the past eight years since the Wizards placed him third in the 2012 NBA Draft. He said it’s hard to see what’s going on and not think about how things are going. they would have been different if the people assaulting the Chapter had been black.
Sixers coach Doc Rivers and Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce echoed that sentiment on Wednesday.
“It’s very emotional,” Beal said. “It’s very discouraging in many ways, because the only lack of sense of urgency there was to respond to what was happening to the protesters and the Black Lives Matter during the summer. It was a direct remark from around the world. Everyone addressed the same issue. . “
On Wednesday, Beal retweeted a post by President Trump in the summer when Trump said anyone who violated federal property during the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, would be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“So we’ll see if he has his foot in his mouth or that’s something he really represents,” Beal said. “Because of the people who invaded our Chapter … they invaded the Chapter. It’s unheard of.
“It is discouraging that we are here with the country.”
Beal, who added that he was frustrated by the decision not to charge officers involved in Jacob Blake’s shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, said it would take patience to embrace the change he and so many other members of the NBA community have spent so much time fighting.
“We continue to fight for the right fight,” Beal said. “We continue to be in front of these parliamentarians and politicians and we continue to put the hammer in front of the changes made, but the biggest thing is the word P – patience. Changes will not be made overnight. to understand what it looks like and what it means.
“It will take patience.”
Meanwhile, Sixers improved to 7-1, the best in the league, thanks to another stellar performance from Embiid, who finished with 38 points in 11-for-20 shots – after missing the first six shots – to goes along with 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks in 37 minutes.
And, in a typical way, Embiid wasn’t exactly shy about accrediting himself because he pulled the Sixers to victory with one big piece after another on the stretch.
“I get paid to take over the game,” Embiid said. “I pay to dominate. That’s my job.
“I always give credit to my teammates. [But] I finished.”
Meanwhile, Embiid’s long-range midfielder, Russell Westbrook, left the game at the last minute and went straight to the locker room while grabbing his right hand. After the game, Westbrook said he dislocated a finger and is not sure if he will ever ask to miss.
“That’s — painful,” said Westbrook, who finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 12 assists in 39 minutes. – But I’ll be fine.