The Philadelphia 76ers are looking to start a new winnings streak as the New Orleans Pelicans come to town on Friday night. The Sixers have been improving their record slowly over the past few weeks as they’ve taken the time to get wins over the few teams lower than them in the league. With Victories over the Jazz, Trail Blazers, Nets, and Wizards, the Sixers find themselves just two and half games out of the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pelicans are coming in with only two wins in their past 15 games and both of those came over the Wizards.
Sixers game information
Who: New Orleans Pelicans (7-31) at Philadelphia 76ers (15-20)
When: 7:00 pm EST
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia PA
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA League Pass
Latest on the Sixers
The Sixers are literally a broken team coming into the game against the Pelicans. Joel Embiid, KJ Martin, Jared McCain, Andre Drummond and Kyle Lowry are all listed as out for Friday nights game. Paul George is probable as he’s been dealing with a groin injury and Tyrese Maxey has spent the past two weeks being driven into the ground, playing 40 minutes per game.
The good news is that KJ Martin is out of his walking boot, Embiid should be able to return by Sunday, Drummond and Lowry don’t have serious injuries, so it’ll just be McCain who was ruled out for the season earlier this week. If the Sixers can get it together, quickly, they may be able to survive the tough schedule they face over the next three weeks.
The bad news is that even when the team is healthy, they haven’t looked very good. When they’re beating up on the Nets, the come back a week later and barely escape the Wizards. They beat the Celtics on Christmas Day and were absolutely blown out by the Warriors a week later. That has been how the season has gone for the team and it doesn’t look to be changing any time soon.
Latest on the Pelicans
The Pelicans arrive in Philly having lost two games in a row after beating the Wizards in back-to-back games last weekend. The problem for the Pelicans is that those are the only two wins that they have in the last 15 games. Two wins in four games isn’t that bad but being surrounded by all of the other losses is where the problem lies.
The Pelicans have a roster that would seem formidable when you list the players out. Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy III, Dejounte Murray, Brandon Boston and Jose Alvarado have some cache to their names and should be able to put together more than seven wins in 38 games. Looking deeper, only rookie Yves Missi has come close to appearing in all of their games as he’s played 37 on the year.
Ingram, Murphy III, and forward Herb Jones will all be out for tonight’s game against the Sixers, and Dejounte Murray is listed as questionable with an elbow injury. Much like Joel Embiid, Zion Williamson has a ridiculous amount of talent and is a dynamic player when he’s on the court but, he’s rarely on the court. Williamson has only played in seven games this season. The team is another broken one, sitting at the bottom of the standings in their conference.
What to watch for tonight
Who knows what to expect anymore with the Sixers? Are they the team that ran the Nets out of Brooklyn or are they the team that just barely won against the Wizards? Will they have enough in the tank to beat both of the bottom teams in the conferences and get two straight wins? Who knows.
Here’s what you can count on for tonight.
The Sixers shoot under 36% on their three-point attempts, under 50% from the floor and they’ll lose the rebounding battle to a Pelicans team that’s only slightly above them in that statistic. Tyrese Maxey will play close to a full game as the team continues to drive him into the ground, despite the fact that he’s shown that something is obviously wrong with his shot at this point in the season. Paul George should return for tonight’s game and he’ll be one of the other starters who will all see over 30 minutes in the game, despite returning from injury.
Zion Williamson will, if he plays, have a monster dunk or two and get himself back on a highlight reel before disappearing for a few games. Guerschon Yabusele will have another big game as he’s stepped up his presence and play of late. Kelly Oubre Jr. and Caleb Martin will continue to do all of the things that they do on a nightly basis that largely go unnoticed and maybe, just maybe, Eric Gordon has another night like he had against the Wizards and gets the team 15 or more points.
Prediction
Sixers 107 – Pelicans 113
Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
