The Philadelphia 76ers (2-10) are back home to face the Phoenix Suns (4-9) tonight at Wells Fargo Center. The Sixers are coming off of a blowout loss to the Timberwolves on Thursday night while the Suns are coming off of a blowout win against the Pacers last night. Even though the Sixers have indeed shattered their losing streak for games before December, they are still on a big losing streak: 21 on the road.
This is interesting timing for both teams: The Suns are coming off of a big win and the Sixers are coming off of a big loss. It seems like a perfect storm for a brutal game for the Sixers. Then again, both teams are 2-3 in their past five games. Within that timespan, they have both beaten the Pacers.
With a somewhat hyped matchup of two young big men poised to be stars, Joel Embiid looked like a rookie big man as he was dominated by Karl-Anthony Towns. Embiid ended the game with a double double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Towns ended up with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Dario Saric lead the team in scoring on Thursday with 16 points during the 110-86 loss.
The Suns managed to win by 20 points without anyone scoring 20 points, which means many players got in on the goods. Seven players scored at least 10 points, with Brandon Knight leading the way with 17 off of the bench. In fact, five of the seven players with double digit points were from the bench.
It would appear the Sixers are going to have their hands full with an impressive Phoenix bench unit. Sometimes, a team where anybody can go off is the most dangerous. The Atanta Hawks are a perfect example of a team that can hurt you in so many ways. The most minutes a Suns starter played was 22 minutes. The Sixers' bench will definitely have to step up in order to keep up.
Looking at basic stats, these teams seem to be evenly matched. The Suns lead the rebounding battle 46.2 vs 42.0. The Sixers have more assists at 21.3 vs 19.0. The Suns have 8.9 steals over 8.2 of the Sixers. The Sixers block 5.2 shots while the Suns only block 3.2 shots. The Suns take better care of the ball giving it up 15.5 times while the Sixers turn the ball over 17.2 times.
The Suns shoot 44 percent while the Sixers shoot 43 percent from the field. The Sixers shoot 34 percent from the arc while the Suns shoot 30 percent. The Suns make 75 percent of free throws while the Sixers shoot 72 percent. Indeed, it would appear that this could be a close one. However, at the end of the day, points are the most important and while the Sixers average 95.9 points per game, the Suns average 108.6 points. The Sixers, on average, lose by about 12 points, which is what the difference roughly is between the Sixers and Suns points per game.
| Matchup Preview | November 19, 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Phoenix Suns (4-9, 2-6 Away) |
Philadelphia 76ers (2-10, 2-5 Home) |
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Game Info:
Tip-off: 7:30pm
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA.
TV: CSN Philly
Listen: 97.5 The Fanatic
