As we suspected heading into the series, and as Game 1 showed, the Sixers are the better team, but the Wizards can certainly hang with the Sixers if they come out ready to fight, the Sixers are not sharp, and maybe something weird happens.
In Game 1, that weirdness was Embiid having the sort of first half foul trouble we rarely see from him (really, his ability to avoid foul trouble without sacrificing his two way dominance is one of the more underrated parts of his game). The Sixers were able to hold off the Wizards in the first half via a great Tobias Harris scoring burst, with the starters following that up by landing the first real punch of the series with a brilliant run in the third quarter, then holding on to the lead in the 4th.
Turning to Game 2, we'll see if the Wizards have come up with any wrinkles to stop Embiid, how Tobias follows up the best playoff game of his career, how Simmons follows up the most extremely Ben Simmons game of all time, and if any bench players will step up. The Wizards will likely try to get Westbrook going, we could also see some sort of starting lineup or rotation change away from playing 3 guards so much.
I imagine the Sixers game plan will be to stick with what worked in the first game, with Embiid ideally playing more than 10 minutes in the first half this time. The big rotation thing to look out for is probably if Maxey gets minutes over Furkan or maybe even Shake. Could easily see an adjustment during the game if the Wizards figured something out though.
Go Sixers!
Trivia answer
Spoiler:
