The Philadelphia 76ers visit the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Sixers are having their best season in a while, while the Cavs seem to look more vulnerable since LeBron James came back, at least on the defensive end. Is that enough for the Sixers to sneak a win?
Haha. Actually…
The Sixers are coming off a loss to the Atlanta Hawks. They lost 99-92 and, sadly, trailed for a large majority of the game. Even worse, they only trailed by as much as 11, which means they spent most of the game within striking distance, but never really able to get over the hump.
The Sixers only had 8 players play. Robert Covington, Jahlil Okafor, and Sergio Rodriguez were injured. Tiago Splitter, the player the Sixers traded from the Hawks, did not play. Richaun Holmes scored 25 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Tsk, tsk. Former Sixer, Ersan Ilyasova, scored 14 points, got 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are not playing like potential NBA champions lately, and their defense seems to be the reason. The Cavs lost to the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night, even after leading by 11 points. They lost 99-93, a very similar score of the Sixers-Hawks score. Yay.
Apparently, the Bulls have won 20 straight games on the TNT Thursday night games. The reason why this stat is interesting to you is because the first win of this streak was against the Sixers.
Anyway, LeBron did move up the NBA all time scoring list, passing Shaq by 3 points at the end of the game. He finished with 26 points. 10 rebounds, and 8 assists. Just wasn't enough. Not only did the Cavs blow a double digit lead, they ended up trailing by double digits later on.
It's not as simple for the Sixers to secure a win on what has been one of the worst defenses in the league. The Sixers, for one thing, will still be without those injured players mentioned earlier. Even if Splitter plays, they'll only have 9 players active, with two of them being general starters for the team this season.
This would be a big win for the Sixers. A loss for the Cavs would open up even more doubt from everybody about their championship chances (not that it's legit doubt, but people love a story).
Projected Starters:
Sixers:
PG: TJ McConnell
SG: Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
SF: Justin Anderson
PF: Dario Saric
C: Richaun Holmes
Cavaliers:
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: JR Smith
SF: LeBron James
PF: Kevin Love
C: Tristian Thompson
Game info
Where: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
When: 7:30 PM ET
Why: Potentially the biggest upset of the season for the Sixers
Watch: CSN Philly, NBC Sports App
Hear: 97.5 The Fanatic
