Well, that was disappointing. After going on a fun three-game win streak to close out 2025 and begin the new year — picking up wins against the Grizzlies, third-place Knicks, and Cooper Flagg’s Mavs — the Sixers completely fumbled the game they should have won. On Monday, they somehow lost to a hospital Nuggets squad down to just nine players, missing all their stars and starters.
Fortunately for the Sixers, their schedule remains favorable (in theory, anyway) on Wednesday, as they’ll have a chance to redeem themselves against the 10-25 Wizards.
Washington is stuck at 14th place in the Eastern Conference right now. They also played on Tuesday against the Magic (picking up a solid 120-112 win) before heading on the road to Philly for Wednesday’s matchup to finish their back-to-back, giving the Sixers a rest advantage too.
The Wizards are also a bit shorthanded. Missing Kyshawn George, who’s out with a hip injury, is a pretty big loss. The sophomore guard has been having a quality season as he’s taken on more ball-handling duties, taking his production (15.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game), efficiency (58.6 true shooting with a 40.8 percent three-point stroke), and comfort creating off the dribble to new levels.
To make things better for the Sixers, they could be getting some additional help at the right time. Along with Joel Embiid being listed as questionable (promising status after he played a season-high 40 minutes on Monday), Kelly Oubre Jr. and Trendon Watford have both been upgraded to questionable. Oubre returning in particular would give a welcome jolt of energy, athleticism, and wing defense to liven up the forward rotation. They could certainly use it after Monday’s effort.
The Sixers have won their two matchups against the Wizards so far this season, and should be more than capable of continuing that trend. CJ McCollum continues to have a decent season as the team’s top scorer and will be the top assignment for Tyrese Maxey and Co., and Alex Sarr is developing nicely at center and remains the NBA’s leading shot blocker at 2.3 per game this season. Promising guards like Tre Johnson and Bub Carrington are ones to watch as well. But with a bottom-four ranking in offensive and defensive rating, the Wizards’ young talent hasn’t exactly been enough to make this team competitive.
As for the Sixers, there are still positives we can’t lose sight of as this week continues just because of that useless Nuggets loss.
For one, Tyrese Maxey is fresh off being named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the outrageous performances he’s making routine.
Then there’s just how good VJ Edgecombe has been lately. His shooting cooled off against the Nuggets (finishing 6-of-17 after a cold first half), but he kept attacking to warm up in the second half, hit some big late threes to help take the game to overtime, and still added nine assists, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
He was on fire over the previous three games, averaging 24.7 points on 56.9/48/80 shooting splits, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 3.3 steals and 1.3 blocks. From his confidence making a variety of threes and controlled ball handling, to the explosive drives and high-energy defensive plays, Edgecombe has been electric.
Doing it on stages against the Knicks and out-duelling fellow Rookie of the Year candidate Cooper Flagg again makes it a bit sweeter, too.
It’ll be interesting to see if Edgecombe can keep it rolling against Washington, and how he fares defending McCollum, as well as Johnson and Carrington when they’re matched up, to help keep what firepower the Wizards do have in check.
Oubre’s defense would be useful against the Wizards’ guards if he returns, and it’ll intriguing to see whether he steps back into the starting lineup as well.
Hopefully for the Sixers they can rediscover the version of themselves that just had the energy and execution to beat the Knicks and bounce back against a weak Wizards squad. It’s time to not play down to the opponent, and the Sixers should have more than enough talent and depth to handle this team even if Embiid is out.
At least, that’s what should be the case.
Game Details
When: Wednesday, January 7, 7:00 p.m. ET
Where: Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers