The Philadelphia 76ers, in the midst of a four-game losing streak, are in Brooklyn on Wednesday night to take on the Nets with their top-six protected draft pick on the line. If the Sixers win and maintain their status as the seventh-worst record in the league, the team will continue to be outside of where they need to be to keep their first-round pick. The Nets have won four of their last five and are just one game behind the Sixers for 11th place in the Eastern Conference.
Sixers game information
Who: Philadelphia 76ers (20-33) at Brooklyn Nets (19-34)
When: 7:30 p.m. EST
Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA League Pass, YES Network
Latest on the Sixers
The Sixers are on the tail end of a back-to-back, and that usually means that center Joel Embiid would be sitting out, but there hasn’t been an official confirmation as of yet. After a Tuesday night loss to the Raptors, Embiid said that he wasn’t sure if he would play and that it depended on how his knee felt on Wednesday.
The Sixers have to make some tough decisions, and they need to be made quickly. President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey has stated that Embiid’s knee condition can and should improve, according to the doctors they had spoken to. Embiid, meanwhile, has said that he believes he may “likely need” surgery and a long recovery time.
Do they shut Embiid down now and hope that they finish in the top six of the draft and keep their first-round pick, or do they keep Embiid on the court and hope they make the playoffs and can make a run? It’s a tough decision for the team and the player.
Tyrese Maxey had arguably his worst game of the season against the Raptors. His head coach hinted that Maxey may have had a physical limitation, but Maxey simply said he needed to be more aggressive.
Maxey finished the game with five points, five rebounds, and three assists on just 1-9 shooting and 1-7 on his three-point attempts. Paul George shot 5-12 and 2-6 on threes and finished with 14 points and three rebounds. The two will have to be much better if the Sixers are going to take down the Nets.
Latest on the Nets
The Nets have won four of their last five games, including Monday night’s 97-89 victory over the Hornets. The team is just one game behind the Sixers for 11th place in the Eastern Conference, and a win tonight would make their records identical, with the Sixers having already won twice in their matchups so far this season.
Brooklyn will again have a hard time with the Sixers as they’re without leading scorer Cam Thomas, who will remain sidelined through the All-Star break with a hamstring injury. Nic Claxton is listed as questionable with an ankle sprain as well. A Nets team that hasn’t been very good this season will be shorthanded against the Sixers, who should be relatively healthy. The Nets, despite injuries, have been playing well lately and could still provide a problem for a faltering Sixers squad.
What to watch for tonight
As the Sixers head into the All-Star break, they’ll want to do it on a positive note, but there haven’t been a lot of positives lately for the team. Tyrese Maxey, up until the Raptors game, has been on fire over the past month and is one of the top players in the league.
The return of Joel Embiid and Paul George seemed to signal that the Sixers would be winning a bunch of games and making a huge playoff push. They added Quentin Grimes and Jared Butler at the trade deadline, and they combined for 28 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists against the Raptors.
The younger players who should be getting time on the court, players like Butler, Grimes, Maxey, Justin Edwards, and Ricky Council IV, have been providing excitement for the team. The problem has been that they’re also losing minutes with Embiid and Paul George on the court, and that rotation hasn’t provided any positive results as of yet.
Some energy and hustle would be what to look for tonight, but with this current version of the Sixers, you never know what you’re going to get. This is usually the type of game in which Embiid would go for 40 points and 15 rebounds while leading the team to a big win, except Embiid probably won’t be playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
The team needs to adopt a more focused offense, spreading the ball around and working to get open shots. The Sixers have a ton of questions they need to answer quickly, and how they’ll perform tonight is another one of those.
Prediction
Sixers 107 – Nets 92
