Alex Sarr close to career best against Joel Embiid

It’s called not letting them take you down. For your first attack action, Alec Sarr Joel Embiid stuck under the circle. But the Frenchman got his skin back and rushed to dunk with both hands. A gesture that heralds a great evening that the second pick in the 2024 draft would be against Philadelphia.

Having had a good start to the season averaging around 16 points in the three matches prior to this one, Alec Sarr decided to increase his level of aggression for his tonight’s opponent. ” He is strong. He moves pretty well. So he’s someone you need to do the work with early on and get to know him from the get-go. », explains the Bordeaux native, talking about Joel Embiid.

Winning the duel with him more than once, which is why he worked a lot in defense (25 points on 9/17 shooting, 7 rebounds and 5 assists in… 23 minutes), Alex Sarr was well helped by his teammates – Chris Middleton and CJ McCollum in the lead – who found him perfectly on the “pick-and-roll”.

Career record ahead of Nikola Jokić

« Learn and progress. That’s the best part of it all. And he did it within the framework and rhythm of the game. This was the best thing about our attack: no one was forcing, the ball was simply circulating », salutes Brian Keefe referring to the 33 assists his training generated.

In that context, his young interior signed his second career outing with 30 points or more: 31 points (13/23 shooting including 3/7 from distance) and 11 rebounds. His best result in his career dates back to March last year, with 34 points ahead of another absolute reference in his position, Nikola Jokić.

« With Alex, we’re starting to see that he’s learning to play in our system. We play it a lot. It’s not just scoring. How many assists did he make? Five again tonight? That’s what always impresses me the most about him: quality of passing, defense. The points will come. And obviously, he had a big game tonight in terms of scoring », continues his coach, according to whom his passing game is underestimated.

Lessons to be learned

The fact remains that his finishing ability impressed in this matchup, and in the end the Wizards lost in overtime. And that, while Washington had a 16-point advantage at the beginning of the last quarter, and another 11 with five minutes to go. What lessons should be learned from this third defeat of the year?

« I’m thinking specifically about overtime experience, knowing how to manage the last seconds or how to manage a lead. We were ten points ahead with about four minutes to go. We could have done this better. Maybe we played not to lose, instead of trying to win at the end of the match. So we just need to fix that. », claims Alex Sarr, whose team travels to the Thunder floor on Thursday.

He concludes: ” We played a really tight game. Obviously, we wish things were different. But we have to learn from it. Everyone knows that. And I think everyone has the right mindset: attack every day, attack every practice, every game, no matter what happened in the last one. »

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How to read statistics? MJ = matches played; Min = Minute; Shots = Shots Successful / Shots Attempted; 3 points = 3 points / attempt 3 points; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; Off = offensive rebound; Def=defensive jump; Tot = Total number of jumps; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal mistakes; Int = intercepts; Bp = lost balls; Ct: Against; Points = Points.