By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly Staff
The Philadelphia 76ers(14-26) host the Portland Trail Blazers(18-26) on Friday night, as the Sixers come into the contest as one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Winners of seven of their last nine games, the Sixers will look to continue their hot streak against the Blazers, who have since went cold. Portland has lost three straight contests, with their last victory coming against the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers just a little over a week ago. The Sixers haven't had that many tests from the Western Conference recently, last playing the Minnesota Timberwolves at the beginning of January. The Sixers are 9-14 at home this season, and have found new life in contests featuring their star center, Joel Embiid. The Blazers have struggled on the road this season with a less-impressive record of 7-17. They will need to figure out ways to contain Embiid down low, where the frontcourt has been a noticeable weakness for Portland all season long.
Last Meeting:
The last time these two teams met was March 26 of last year, where the Sixers fell in Portland to the Blazers by three, 108-105. The Sixers fell to 9-64 after that game, as the Blazers improved to 38-36. The three point margin was all due to the Sixers coming back and winning the fourth quarter and outscoring the Blazers 31-22. C.J. McCollum was the hero for the Blazers with a tie-breaking three point play with 7.6 seconds to play in regulation. For Philadelphia, Ish Smith, Robert Covington, and Hollis Thompson led the way in scoring with 17 points each. McCollum's 25 points mixed with Damian Lillard's 16 points and seven assists allowed the Blazers to just barely scamper away with the home victory against the 76ers.
Joel Embiid tries for history:
As Joel Embiid continues to wow the Wells Fargo Center crowd with his unprecedented enthusiasm, impressive leadership, and unbelievable confidence, a Sixers rookie scoring record hangs in the balance during Friday night's game. Embiid has another chance to score 20 points, which would be for the 11th straight game. The only Sixers rookie to score 20 points in 11 straight matchups is Allen Iverson, when he did it in the 1997-1998 season. Embiid scored 26 points and tacked on nine rebounds in Wednesday night's victory against the Toronto Raptors pushing the streak to ten straight games. Embiid tying Iverson would be incredible, the 7' 2" center looks almost like a lock for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award at year-end.
Guarding Lillard and McCollum to be tough test for Sixers backcourt:
It's no secret the Sixers have a weakness with their backcourt this season. Offensively and defensively, the backcourt, made mostly of T.J. McConnell, Sergio Rodriguez, and Nik Stauskas have for the most part struggled to stay in line with other team's backcourts. Portland brings with them one of the deadliest one-two backcourt punches, despite their team record. Damian Lillard is averaging 26.1 ppg this season and is currently sitting in sixth in the West for overall scoring. C.J. McCollum is averaging 23.4 ppg is ninth in scoring in the West. So the Blazers backcourt is made up of two of the Western Conference's top ten scorers. Quite the task to adjust to, if you're the Sixers.
Fortunately for Philadelphia, it takes a lot more than a backcourt in order to win a basketball game. The Sixers frontcourt is miles better than the Blazers' frontcourt. The mixture of Embiid, Ersan Ilyasova, Nerlens Noel and the emergence of Dario Saric will be a tough pill to swallow for the Blazers on Friday night. One thing is for sure, the matchup of Embiid and Mason Plumlee is going to be one heck of a matchup to watch.
Previous Game Rewind
Sixers: Well, the Sixers kept the momentum rolling with a huge win over the second-best team in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors. All throughout the contest, the Sixers held their own and stayed tough against the defending Eastern Conference runners-up in the playoffs last season. With a sequence of a three-pointer and a dunk by Embiid at the conclusion of the game, followed by two blocks, one by Robert Covington, and one by Embiid, the Sixers sealed the deal for their seventh win and nine games. The win was probably one of the biggest for the Sixers this season, and showed their resiliency deep in ballgames against tough opponents. Besides Embiid, Ersan Ilyasova had a stellar night, as he went 3-of-4 from three that helped the Turk get to 18 points on the night.
Blazers: The Blazers were unable to come out of their last matchup victorious after falling to the Charlotte Hornets, 107-85. The team just overall struggled from the field going 33-for-94 shooting. The Blazers started out strong in the first quarter, but could not overcome strong performances from Kemba Walker(23 points) and Nicolas Batum(17 points) as the Hornets pulled away for the remainder of the game. Not surprisingly, Damian Lillard led the team in scoring with 21 points, as C.J. McCollum followed suit with 18 points. The loss for Portland was their third in a row.
| Matchup Preview | January 20, 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Portland Trailblazers (18-26, 7-17 Away) |
Philadelphia 76ers (14-26, 9-14 Home) |
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