“I think the game the other night against them had us a little focused in the practice and the shootaround and certainly at the start,” Nurse said. “Usually, in an NBA game, you’re gonna see this swing back the other way for a while, but our guys kept playing with good assertiveness at both ends almost for the whole game so it was good.”

It was obvious that the Sixers played with a different mentality then they did in D.C. Philadelphia’s defensive effort was much better and the Sixers did now allow the Wizards to get into the paint as often as they did on Dec. 6 and they were just much better overall. It led to an easy win and now they can move on.

“Well, our approach is different,” added Robert Covington. “Our feel for the game. We came out and we set the tone and not allowed them to set the tone like they did last night. We enforced our will throughout the game and we never let up and that’s why we was able to push through and separate ourselves the way we did.”