The Philadelphia 76ers could sneak away with a few wins on their West coast road trip in the next few games.
The Philadelphia 76ers have been known as a team that offers most opponents a “rest game.” The San Antonio Spurs sat Tim Duncan when they came to town and still beat them by over 50 points, and it just seems that the Sixers couldn’t beat most teams no matter who they’re up against. But a five game West coast road trip could result in more wins than most expected. The Phoenix Suns were looking for an easy post-Christmas day game on Saturday against the Sixers, but the Sixers–with a bit of a new look–came out swinging and were able to take down the Suns for their second win of the season.
Not only was this win big for the Sixers in general, because they hadn’t won on the road in over 20 consecutive games, but it was a big way to get a few things started. Their post-Christmas day season started on a high note–and the new look of the team with Ish Smith starting his first game of the season for them–something that could kick start them for the rest of the season.
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They also got a five game West coast road trip off to a great start. A slew of games away from the home base was looked at as something that set the Sixers up for doom before the trip started, but now it’s looking a bit more optimistic, especially with the games they have coming up.
Most of these games on the road trip looked dreary at best, but coming off of a win, there’s more reason for optimism and reason to hope that they will pull off more wins while away from home.
Next up is the Utah Jazz, who are 24th in the league in points per game. The Jazz have won just three of their last 10 games, and things look bad for them this season as well.
After that, the road trip finishes up with three games in California, starting in Sacramento against the Sacramento Kings. The Kings have done much better on the scoring front, sitting at third in the NBA in points per game, but their defense has been bad, giving up the third most points per game to their opponents.
Following that is the Lakers and the Clippers, both at the Staples Center. The Sixers have already beaten the Lakers this year–it was their first win of the season–so there’s reason to belive they could do it again. Expecting them to beat the Clippers is a bit of a long shot, though, put perhaps the familiarity of the Staples Center from the night before could help them get a win in the books there as well.
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Expecting Philly to win all these games is definitely not realistic. The way they’ve played this seaosn, there’s reason to believe that they will only win one or zero of these games. But if they’re able to move the ball like they did against Phoenix, there’s reason to believe they could win two or even three of the remaining four games on the trip. That’s some incredible optimism, but the opponents–when looked at individually–are beatbale opponents. The question now becomes can they do it while on the road?
It’s clear this team has a high morale right now, and for good reason. Having Ish back on the team is exciting, Nik Stauskas is shooting well, and everything seems to be flowing for them. The Sixers, who have largely looked like a college-level, or even a high school level team for most of this season, finally looked like a real team with Smith running the offense against Phoenix. Let’s see if that momentum can keep things going.