The Philadelphia 76ers were very aggressive last week as the trade deadline approached. After the deadline had passed the big question remaining about this new look 76ers was how would the mesh considering there were so many new faces being brought in?
It is safe to say that after two games together there may be no ceiling for this team. In their highly anticipated first game together Friday night against the Denver Nuggets this new Big 4 wasn’t even lead by a member of the Big 4. JJ Redick was stupid hot… missing only 4 total shots and only 1 from 3 in route 34 points. Newly acquired Sixer, Tobias Harris, did exactly what we went out and got him to do… Space the floor, knock down some 3s and just get buckets. The new look starting 5 combined for 97 of the 117 total points even with Embiid having a pedestrian game for his standards.
Sunday against the Lakers, Embiid bounced back in a huge way. Having not practiced Saturday with an illness he was listed as questionable for Sunday’s matchup. Not only did he play he dominated. He poured in 37 points along with grabbing 14 boards in a 143-120 beat down of the Lakers. Even though Simmons had one of the worst games of his season so far, there were definitely some positive things you saw from him if you are a fan. With Lebron sagging off of him for most of the afternoon and standing in the paint he was actually shooting jump shots and even attempting a 3 pointer!! He didn’t make many of them but at least he’s attempting them… baby steps. Keep shooting Ben, they’ll start to fall when we need them!
Even though two games is a very small sample size this team is scary. They have 5 guys out there who could go off for 30+ points each and every night. Now that they have some bench depth to go along with this starting 5 and if Brett Brown figures out rotations for the first 3 quarters this team can play with anyone. I can’t wait to see what this team can do after they get back from the All Star break with some more practice together.
Tuesday night will be a big test as the Celtics come to town before closing out the first half of the season at the Knicks Wednesday. 4-0 would be a pretty great start to this new Post Process Era…
-Messy Marv
#heretheycome
#trusttheprocess
@messymarv31
Featured images- Twitter (@afterthewhistleC)