The Philadelphia 76ers return home on Wednesday night, after two games in Toronto and one in Orlando, to host the Cleveland Cavaliers. After a tough overtime loss to the Raptors on Sunday, the Sixers bounced back on Monday, 115-102, to take the rematch and get themselves back in the win column. The Cavaliers are coming to town on the heels of a loss, 123-112, to the Utah Jazz.
Who: Cleveland Cavaliers (22-19) at Philadelphia 76ers (22-16)
When: 7:00 p.m EST
Where: XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
Watch: ESPN, NBC Sports Philadelphia, FanDuel Sports Network Ohio
The skepticism of Sixers fans will get the best of them at times, but this season, the Sixers have set plans in place to bring along Joel Embiid slowly, allow Tyrese Maxey to take control of the team, and get VJ Edgecombe immediate minutes, while incorporating the play of Paul George, Quentin Grimes, Dominick Barlow, and a host of others. To everyone's surprise, it's been working well.
While the team isn't dominating the Eastern Conference, they're just 2.5 games behind the Knicks for second place. Tyrese Maxey has taken the team as his own, leading the league in minutes per game at 39.6, while also being the third leading scorer with 30.9 points per game, and ninth in assists per game. In addition, Maxey has regained his touch from long distance, shooting 40.9% on his three-point attempts. He's continued to grow and impress not just the team and its fans but the league as a whole.
For their biggest star, the season wasn't off to a great start, and for Joel Embiid, it looked like it might be another year of missed games and "injury management". Then, as the plans started coming together, at the end of December, Embiid just started playing more regularly, looking close to the player he had been. Appearing in seven games in December, Embiid will match that total in January tonight. He's averaging 26.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 55.3% from the field for the month. Embiid being back but accepting a new role has been huge for the Sixers, and it's only getting better.
Despite leading the conference last season, the Cavaliers are in seventh place this year, stuck among a host of other mid-level teams. Outside of star Donovan Mitchell, the Cavaliers are more of a team of very good players than great. Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and De'Andre Hunter are talented, but aren't striking fear into hearts around the league.
Mitchell is having another fantastic season, averaging 29.5 points per game, good for fifth in the league, along with 5.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists. His 38.6% from beyond the three-point line is tied for his career high, while his 10 attempts per game is a career high. Mitchell is the star and leader of a well-balanced team that doesn't seem to excel at any one thing.
Offensively, the Cavaliers are a talented team, with seven players averaging double figures in scoring this season. The Cavaliers are also eighth in the league with an offensive rating of 117.4, though their defensive rating is 115.4, which puts them right in the middle at 15th.
Cleveland takes 42 three-pointers per game, third in the league, but converts only 35.5%, 17th. Right now, the Cavs are just another team searching for an identity in a conference that has too many of them.
Having Embiid, Maxey, Paul George, and VJ Edgecombe on the floor is reason enough this season. The team is working Kelly Oubre Jr. and Trendon Watford back into the rotation after they both missed extended time with injuries, but the Sixers are as healthy as they've been over the last several years, and they're exciting on both ends of the floor, with whoever is on the court.
Embiid, George, Edgecombe, and Oubre are all on the injury report but are expected to play and are listed as "probable" for tonight.
Both teams like to get out and run, and both like to shoot a ton of three-pointers, as the whole league does now. But the Sixers need to get those shots to fall early and not put themselves in a hole against a team that can run up the score quickly. While Maxey, Embiid, and Edgecombe will assuredly get their numbers, the game will come down to the other players like Quentin Grimes hitting shots, Oubre, and George performing on both ends of the floor, while the Sixers front court has to battle for rebounds and defensive stops.
While tonight will surely be a test as the Cavaliers were the top team in the conference last season, this new version of the Sixers, with the talent and health that they now have, shouldn't have a problem handling the Cavs and taking the next step towards the top of the conference. While it wasn't clear at the start of the season, the Sixers' plan is starting to come into focus, and it could be the best one they've put forth in years.
Sixers 125 - Cavaliers 117
