The Philadelphia 76ers are home and hosting the New York Knicks on Wednesday night as they look to break out of their three game losing streak. The deck is not stacked in their favor as they have faced the worst injury bug of the season, which didn’t seem possible. The Knicks are surely beatable as they’ve lost three of their last five games but in order to do that the Sixers need to have some of their star players available.
Sixers game information
Who: New York Knicks (26-15) at Philadelphia 76ers (15-23)
When: 7:00 pm EST
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia PA
How To Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, MSG, ESPN
Latest on the Sixers
When the Sixers hit the court tonight, there is no guarantee that they’ll have any of their usual starters with the exception of Kelly Oubre Jr. Joel Embiid is still questionable with his sprained foot. Tyrese Maxey, Caleb Martin and Paul George all missed Tuesdays game against the Thunder and are listed as day-to-day. Andre Drummond, KJ Martin, Kyle Lowry and Jared McCain all remain out as well. This is as bad as it’s ever been for the Sixers and there isn’t really an end in sight.
What the Sixers have been able to realize, especially last night in their loss to the Thunder, is that they made a huge move in signing Justin Edwards to a rookie two-way contract after he went undrafted this past year. Edwards left Philadelphia, his hometown, as a surefire top of the first round pick when he entered Kentucky for his first season. Issues in Kentucky limited him to start his career there and he had a very good second half of the season.
In step the hometown Sixers and the young man is back home and playing for his favorite team. The rookie has been given some more minutes over the past two weeks, although they’ve been sporadic, and has played relatively well, until Tuesday night. Although he didn’t start the game, Edwards came off the bench and led the team in scoring with 25 points, shooting 9-16 from the floor and 4-9 on his three-point attempts and also chipped in 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Edwards and Ricky Council IV both played 35 minutes and it was obvious why, as they combined for 38 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Having him on the floor with Oubre Jr. and Geurschon Yabusele gave the Sixers some defense that they didn’t know they had as most of their starters were missing the game. Add in rookie. Adem Bona and Ricky Council IV and the team may just have a quality core group of special young players that can contribute something other than keeping the bench warm while players like Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon and Reggie Jackson are all getting minutes. The youngsters have stepped up and are starting to show what they can do.
Latest on the Knicks
The Knicks are coming to Philadelphia after being beaten by the Pistons on Monday night, 124-119, where they played well but just couldn’t put it together at the end of the game. They’ve lost five of their last seven games but they’ve looked up and down the whole time. While they’ve had close games with the Pistons and Magic, they also were blown out by the Thunder only to come back two days later and absolutely demolish the Milwaukee Bucks.
Tonight Jalen Brunson, the teams leader, is listed as probably as he’s dealing with a shoulder injury and Karl-Anthony Towns is questionable with a thumb injury. Brunson and Towns are combining to give the Knicks just over 51 points per game while Towns is the second leading rebounder in the league at 13.9 per game. Add in that Mikal Bridges is averaging 17.8 points, OG Anunoby is averaging 16 points and Josh Hart 14.3 points per game and the Knicks have a formidable team for anyone that comes up against them.
Towns is also hitting on 44.9% of his three-point attempts while the Knicks, as a team, are 7th in the league three-point shooting. Miles McBride, Cam Payne, and Precious Achiuwa have all been giving the team quality minutes off the bench and adding scoring, rebounding and defense. The Knicks have a very talented roster and will be looking to put the Sixers down even further in the Eastern Conference as they always take these matchups personally.
What to watch for tonight
First thing to look for in tonights game will be Tyrese Maxey, Paul George or Joel Embiid. Despite the “day-to-day” label that each is currently carrying, it would be a huge help for a drastically short-handed Sixers roster if one or more of them were able to play tonight. Maxey is the key as he’s averaged over 40 minutes per game over the past few weeks and much like the start of the season, it has broken him down to where he’s at least missed the last game. The coach needs to figure out how to give Maxey some time on the bench.
For the rest of the squad, the Sixers can really do some damage to the Knicks ego if they’re able to pull out a win against one of their biggest rivals. Having Justin Edwards put in a performance like the one he had against the Thunder would be a huge start and Nick Nurse may just use him the same as he came off the bench early on Tuesday night.
What the Sixers are going to need is more from Kelly Oubre Jr. and Reggie Jackson is the coach is going to start them both against the Knicks. Oubre Jr. was poor against the Thunder shooting just 2-10 from the floor and missing all four of his three-point attempts. Jackson wasn’t much better shooting 0-3 on his threes as the duo combined for just 12 points.
The Sixers also need to avoid getting into a three-point shooting contest with the Knicks as they’re one of the best shooting teams in the league and the Sixers sit near the very bottom. If the Sixers are to make any waves, they’ll need a good penetration game and contributions from Yabusele, Edwards, Council and Oubre on the front lines. Oubre Jr. and Edwards could turn into quite a tandem off the bench moving forward as both give the Sixers size, shooting and defense at multiple positions and should be interesting to watch how the two grow together.
Prediction
Knicks 123 – Sixers 111
Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
