By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Tip-off: 7:00 pm ❖ Location: Detroit, MI ❖ TV: NBCSP ❖ Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Can the Philadelphia 76ers (47-30) take their win streak to 12 straight games? Again, the last time the Sixers won 12 games in a row was back in 1990.
Playing the easiest schedule in the NBA to end the season, the Sixers visit the Pistons (37-40) on Wednesday night with a little more of a challenge than they have been particularly used to.
Andre Drummond is an interesting character for the Sixers in that they are playing without Joel Embiid and Dario Saric. Guarding Drummond is going to be one difficult task, and when there is no one that is an equal guarding Drummond, he tends to exploit team's weaknesses. The Sixers are definitely going to want to avoid that on Wednesday.
However, if Drummond doesn't play due to illness, as Rod Beard of the Detroit Free Press reports, the Sixers may found their near guarantee to winning this game on the road.
For the Sixers, winning hasn't been difficult as of late. Winning 11 straight games and trying to get a grasp on the Cleveland Cavaliers and their No. 3 seed is looking more and more like a possibility.
The way the Sixers have played this stretch of games, even against "bad" teams, has been extremely impressive without two of their core players.
At this point in the season, the goal for the Sixers is to be healthy enough to be a contender in the Eastern Conference. The Sixers have two games left this year against playoff teams with the Cavaliers on Friday night and the Bucks for the last game of the year. This Pistons team will miss the playoffs, but are the "most competitive" team the Sixers will face during this winning streak.
For the Pistons, this has been one disappointing season. Getting Avery Bradley to team up with Drummond and Tobias Harris gave the look that the Pistons were gearing up for a playoff run. They started off hot, and then came back to earth. Eventually, they traded parts of their future for Blake Griffin, who has been underwhelming, who will almost likely be forcing his way out at some point.
They went from being a fringe playoff team to a non-issue for teams in one season.
Ben Simmons is about to have another game where he carries his team to victory. This rookie year has been one impressive showing for Simmons. There hasn't been a game this year where you have to worry about him too much. When Simmons isn't scoring, he's distributing, which is how the Sixers are so successful as a team.
While Simmons is leading the Sixers in a plethora of categories, including assists, steals, and FG%, he's also leading the team in advanced stats such as win shares (8.5), defensive win shares (4.7), Box Plus/Minus (+4.4), and Value over Replacement Player (VoRP) (4.2).
When you take those stats and put them up against other NBA players this season, he's among league leaders in those categories too.
Simmons is 3rd in assists, t-5th in steals, 15th in FG%, 20th in win shares, 2nd in defensive win shares (behind Drummond), and 14th in VoRP.
Simmons is the key for the Sixers success right now, and even against lesser teams, as long as Simmons is playing up to par, the losses of Embiid and Saric just don't hurt nearly as much.
The probability of the Sixers winning Wednesday against the Pistons is high, increasing their win streak to 12 straight and putting the team in a big position to upset the Cavs on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center.
| Matchup Preview | April 4, 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Philadelphia 76ers (47-30, 20-19 Away) |
Detroit Pistons (37-40, 24-14 Home) |
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