The Philadelphia 76ers are in Denver to take on Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets, looking to extend their two-game winning streak after beating the Nets and the Trail Blazers to end last week. The Nuggets are 2-3 over their last five games, with a tough 127-125 overtime loss to the Lakers as their most recent loss. While the Sixers have been decimated by injury, the Nuggets are mostly healthy and hoping to get things rolling as they head into the playoffs.
Who: Philadelphia 76ers (37-31) at Denver Nuggets (41-27)
When: 10 p.m. EST
Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO.
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA League Pass
With the amount of injuries that the Sixers are dealing with, players that normally don't see the floor are getting much more time. Justin Edwards has had limited opportunity for most of the season, but he's now getting extended minutes and responding well to the challenge. Looking at four of his last five games, taking his mere six-minute run in Memphis out of the equation, Edwards has averaged over 20 minutes per game. In that time, he's averaged an impressive 16.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.0 assists. More impressive is that he's shooting 42.9% on his three-point attempts and 63.6% from the floor.
With all the chaos surrounding the team since the trade deadline, Edwards, along with rookie VJ Edgecombe and new (returning) addition Cam Payne, has given the team some quality minutes of late and is learning to play better as a unit. Add in Quentin Grimes, who is on his second straight spring showcase, and the team, while not a contender, is at least holding its own over the last few games, but the Denver Nuggets are of a higher caliber.
With Joel Embiid's injury status uncertain, but Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. hopeful to return next week, the Sixers will be just waiting on Tyrese Maxey soon enough. The key for head coach Nick Nurse will be to understand and use someone like Edwards, who's been a hot shooter, to benefit the team as a whole when they return to health.
Nuggets guard Peyton Watson is enjoying the best season of his career, but he's out for Tuesday night's game as the only full-time player slated to be out. The Nuggets, led by Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, also feature talented players like Aaron Gordon, Tim Hardaway Jr., Cam Johnson, and Christian Braun, all averaging double figures in scoring on the season. Jokic is leading the way with 28.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 10.5 assists on the season, while Murray isn't far behind him with 25.4 points and 7.1 assists per game. They're as formidable a duo in the league as you'll find.
The Nuggets rank among the league's top three-point shooting teams at 39.1% and are the league's top-scoring offense at 120.7 points per game. Their defense isn't anything special, ranking 21st in the league, but one thing they do well is score in the third quarter, which is the worst thing that the Sixers could run into at this point in the season. The Nuggets rank first in third-quarter scoring with 31.1 points per game, while Philadelphia sits dead last at just 26.1 points.
There's a logjam in the Western Conference for the third through seventh seeds with just four games separating those squads, and while the loss to the third-place Lakers on Saturday hurt, the Nuggets have a fairly easy schedule the rest of the way, and getting up to the higher seeding is well within their reach, starting tonight against the Sixers.
The Sixers are a middle-of-the-pack defensive team facing an elite offense. They will need the best games of the season from Edgecombe, Edwards, and Grimes if they're going to hang in there against the Nuggets. With Edwards and Edgecombe, the key will be to use their penetration and agility to get inside on a defense that's at the bottom of the league in blocking shots. While the Sixers rank high in blocked shots and steals, the Nuggets sit at or near the bottom in both categories, and the Sixers have to take advantage of that if they're going to steal a win in Denver.
The biggest threat to the Sixers stealing a high-profile win, this late in the season, is getting into a long-range shooting contest with the one team in the league that's better than everyone else in that department. If Grimes isn't even close to shooting well yet still keeps chucking them up there, and the movement fails so that Edgecombe and Edwards aren't getting quality looks, this game will get out of hand quickly.
Nuggets 133 - Sixers 98
