The Sixers Look to Sweep Their West Coast Trip vs The Suns
By Dylan MacKinnon
The Sixers will look to sweep their West Coast Road trip tonight when they play the Suns. They began the trip with wins vs the Lakers and Clippers. But it will get a bit more difficult tonight when they play the Suns, who are the Number One Overall Seed by a wide margin. They hold an 8.5 game lead over the second-best team in the West and have a 13.5 game lead on any team in the East. They are so far ahead, they have already clinched the number 1 overall seed.
For the Sixers’ part, they currently hold a slight lead for the first seed in the East. A loss by the Heat last night pushed the Sixers slightly ahead with one less loss. Also right there with the Sixers and Heat are the Bucks and Celtics. All four teams are within a half-game of each other. Meaning all of the last 9 games remaining will have huger seeding ramifications.
The Sixers come into the game with a clean injury report. A refreshing change after spending a couple of weeks with Embiid’s status being questionable in every game. There is of course still a chance either or both of them will be rested. Doc Rivers elected to rest both of them Monday night vs the Heat. The Sixers have two upcoming Back-to-back games, both this weekend and the following. So if he was going to get them another game of rest, it would likely come in one of those 4 games.
The Suns Injury report however is packed. JaVale McGee (illness), Cameron Johnson (Quad), are both out. Meanwhile, they have been without Dario Saric (ACL) all year, and Frank Kaminsky (Knee) has been out since November after undergoing surgery. They do however have Chris Paul again after he missed weeks with a broken Thumb. He had 17 pts and 13 assists in his first game back on Thursday vs the Nuggets.
The Suns come in on a 7 game winning streak. The last time the two teams met was a 114-109 Suns win back in February. Devin Booker dropped 35 pts on the Sixers that night, and Embiid scored 34 in the loss. Tonight’s game tips at 6 pm, and our coverage begins at 5:50 with Devon Givens and the Pre-Game Show. Tom McGinnis is on the call. Join us while the Sixers look to sweep their 3 game West Coast trip.
