It’s hard to create any good vibes for a Sixers game preview right now. Apart from Joel Embiid’s recent attitude and comments and the team meeting that led to Tyrese Maxey fairly challenging his MVP teammate, the Sixers are in the midst of a five-game losing streak. At 2-12, they’re now officially dead last in the Eastern Conference. As bad as the East has been so far this season, the margin of error from this point on to still grab a good playoff seed is rapidly slipping away — if not gone already.
Back to focusing on the short term, though. For now, the Sixers are continuing in the Emirates NBA Cup with a matchup against the Nets on Friday.
The Sixers’ Big 3 finally playing together was awfully short lived, as Paul George left early against the Grizzlies on Wednesday due to a hyperextension of his left knee — the same knee he also hyperextended in the preseason. He’s now been diagnosed with a bone bruise and will be out for the next two games, before being re-evaulated on Monday.
With George sidelined, the positive is that Maxey and Embiid remain available. Despite the continued drama, Embiid did still return to more like his usual self against the Grizzlies. He dropped 35 points in as many minutes on 10-of-21 shooting, including a perfect 14-of-14 mark from the free throw line. With no one to contain him in the Nets’ smaller frontcourt, it could be a chance for Embiid to start finding more of a rhythm and give the Sixers a much needed advantage.
Apart from George, the only other Sixer on the injury report who’s out is Kyle Lowry with a right hip strain.
The Nets are hanging at the bottom of the weak Eastern playoff picture, sitting at 6-9 as a fun eighth seed. Their defense may be terrible at 25th-place in the NBA, but their offensive talent leads the way, giving them an impressive ranking of eighth in offensive rating.
They may be dealing with several absences for Friday’s contest, though. Bojan Bogdanovic (left foot injury recovery) and Day’Ron Sharpe (left hamstring strain) remain out, while the frontcourt could be missing a couple of key pieces with Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle sprain) and Nic Claxton (lower back strain) both listed as questionable.
There are still a few players in particular for the Sixers to watch out for in this one.
Cam Thomas continues to make the most of the increased green light he’s had since last season, and is averaging a career-best 24.6 points per game to lead the Nets with fair efficiency too. Thomas is gunning away, but his efficient 39.2 three-point percentage on his 7.3 attempts per game has helped give him a solid true shooting percentage of 59.9. And after missing the Nets’ last game with lower back tightness, he’s probable to return on Friday.
Cameron Johnson is always a dangerous shooter in a variety of settings and from deep range, putting up a career-high 18.1 points a game this season. He’s attempting a career-high 7.8 threes per game and still making 39.3 percent of them — the Sixers’ wings need to be engaged to cover his off-ball movement and stick with him around screens.
Dennis Schroder, following an excellent run in the Olympics for Germany, has been just as good to start the year for Brooklyn. While averaging 17.8 points per game, a career-high 6.5 assists, shooting at a higher volume and efficiency from three (41.4 percent on 6.6 attempts), and recording a 58.8 true shooting percentage, he’s put together a quality offensive season so far. He’s showing more well-rounded scoring with his improved shooting, finishing well, running a fairly high volume of pick-and-rolls effectively, and moving the ball.
Of course, I can’t not mention that Ben Simmons will be back in this contest. Oh, how you’ve missed him, I’m sure. Simmons has been, well… what you’d expect at this point. His production has still plummeted (currently averaging a career-low 5.7 points on 4.8 field goal attempts in 24.5 minutes) from his All-Star days with the Sixers and he’s continuing to show a major lack of aggression when it comes to driving to the basket or looking to score in general.
With how poorly the start of this season has gone, from availability and off-court noise to overall performance for this Sixers team, no opponent can be taken lightly. Hopefully for Philly, Embiid improving and Maxey being back (after ideally having shaken some rust off on Wednesday in his 3-of-13 shooting night) will give them a big enough lift to secure a win. We can look forward to another viewing of Maxey and Jared McCain together too, as the rookie keeps thriving with a red-hot average of 25.5 points over the last six games.
Let’s see if that’s enough to bring this losing streak to an end.
Game Details
Who: Philadelphia 76ers vs. Brooklyn Nets
When: 7:00 pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers
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