What A Road Trip For The Sixers
Anyone who talked about the Sixers’ 2nd half schedule mentioned it: a very tough 5 games in 7 days road trip that featured matchups with some very solid basketball teams. It was set to be a grueling stretch of the schedule, and the Sixers just wrapped it up with relative ease. Following last night’s 117-94 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Joel Embiid and company boarded a plane for Philadelphia with a 4-1 record in tow. The trip included wins over Minnesota, Miami, Indiana, and, most notably, Milwaukee, who are currently the top seed in the East and have the best record in the NBA. It was a very impressive trip when you just look at the results, but it becomes even more encouraging when you dive a little deeper into how it happened.
First of all, the Sixers had to overcome missing Tobias Harris and PJ Tucker on Monday night in Indiana, and taking down Minnesota without the services of James Harden. Road trips are never easy, but they get even harder when 3 starters miss games due to injury. Joel Embiid also sat in Miami to start the trip, but man, did he prove that strategy correct over the past 4 games. Embiid has averaged 36.8 pts, 6.5 rebs, and 4.5 assists in his last 4, and that includes a performance in Minneapolis where the MVP Candidate rested for the entire 4th quarter. Not only has Embiid been transcendent, but Tyrese Maxey has turned back into the player we remember from last year’s Sixers team, averaging 26.5 ppg over the 5-game trip. Maybe, just maybe, he should stay in the starting lineup from now on.
What’s even better than a 4-1 trip is how the schedule looks now for the Sixers. The next 7 games look like a great opportunity to build on this hot stretch, with Philly facing Portland, Washington, Cleveland, Charlotte, Indiana, and Chicago on a home and away. All of those teams except Cleveland are currently below .500, making this a great chance for the red-hot Sixers to go on a run to try and close the gap between them and the top 2 teams in the Eastern Conference. In a year that feels like there’s a real opportunity for this Sixers team, this could very well be the stretch of the regular season that opens the door to a top 2 seed in the East.
