The Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Denver Nuggets on Monday night in primetime on Peacock. The Sixers were coming in looking to add to their three-game winning streak, while the Nuggets have lost four of their last five games. When this matchup was moved to NBC/Peacock, the league was hoping for a matchup between two of the league’s best centers in Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, but instead, they got a game with an injury-riddled Nuggets team.
The Nuggets were without the majority of their rotation, including Jokic, Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jamal Murray, Cam Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas. The Sixers, who have dealt with the injury bug early on and still have some key pieces out, came in with their preferred starting lineup featuring Joel Embiid, who has played in four straight games. In previous Philly versus Denver matchups, much has been made about the availability of the big fella or the health of the Sixers in general, and tonight the coin flipped on that topic.
The first quarter started with the Nuggets taking an early 11-2 lead, playing really aggressively on offense. Players like Spencer Jones and Peyton Watson, the latter being the only regular starter available, were the catalyst for an early lead for Denver. The Sixers started to slowly climb back, with Joel Embiid carrying the Sixers on offense. He took advantage of the lack of size the Nuggets had on the court and dominated early. He had 11 first-quarter points as the opposition tried creative ways to keep him out of the paint.
Denver’s strategy was clear from the start: muck up the game with different defenses and shoot a ton of threes. It worked as they took a three-point lead into the second quarter. The Nuggets continued to keep the Sixers at arm’s length to begin the quarter, but Adem Bona’s energy helped the Sixers claw back into the game. He used his physicality and athleticism to get offensive rebounds and putbacks.
Philly took their first lead 49-46 with 4:37 to go in the second quarter, but the opposition continued to play inspired basketball. The aforementioned Peyton Watson and Jalen Pickett seemed to knock down every shot for Denver. Watson had a bunch of tough makes late in the quarter, keeping his team in it and tied at the half.
Denver’s Jalen Pickett had his thumb print all of the start of the third quarter and continued his hot shooting for the night. His confidence seemed to rise after every shot he made and actively hunted Joel Embiid on switches to knock down step-back threes. Midway through the period, he had six three-pointers and 22 points.
The Nuggets played the majority of the period in a zone defense to take away the advantage that Embiid had down low, but the Sixers managed to find ways to score and take advantage of them being the bonus late in the quarter. VJ Edgecombe shook off his tough first half to help the Sixers build a lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Sixers built their lead up to as much as eight to begin the fourth, but a couple of empty possessions put the Sixers in a four-point hole with just over seven minutes to go. Zeke Nnaji, who scored 21 points, helped build a six-point lead, but the two-way brilliance by VJ Edgecombe in the final two minutes helped the Sixers tie it late. The Sixers had one final possession with no shot clock to go for a game-winner, but Tyrese Maxey mishandled the ball in the final seconds and missed a last-minute shot to send the game to overtime.
Edgecombe tried to will his team in overtime, but both teams struggled to score. The Sixers had some bad turnovers in OT after some really good defensive plays to turn off the water for the Nuggets. With less than 20 seconds to go in the extra period, Philly had the ball in the rookie’s hand. He drove to the basket and didn’t get a foul call, that missed shot led to a Denver fast break and Bruce Brown having his layup goaltended by Joel Embiid. That proved to be all the shorthanded Nuggets needed as the Sixers couldn’t score with 5.3 remaining and lost 125-124.
The undermanned Nuggets squad deserves credit for coming into Philadelphia and not laying down with all their players out. They earned a win against a team that is fighting to climb up the Eastern Conference standings. This was a bad loss for a Sixers squad needing to stack wins and a good performance from Embiid was wasted.
The Sixers host the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. EST, looking to win the season series.
