It was the fourth time the Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons have met in this young season but for the second time in a row, one of the teams was missing a key player.
The Philadelphia 76ers have now played about one-seventh of its schedule this year against the Detroit Pistons.
In a battle of depleted teams, the Sixers ‘Un-Korked’ a 116-102 victory over the Pistons. The 76ers are now 19-9 on the season and an NBA-best 14-1 at home. Detroit (13-12) lost its fifth game in a row.
Detroit, playing its third game in four days, came in shorthanded as it was announced that forward and noted Sixers-killer Blake Griffin, who has averaged 39.7 points against them this year, was resting and they were already missing three rotation players (Ish Smith, Stanley Johnson and Reggie Bullock) due to injury.
The Sixers were quickly not exactly at full strength themselves as Jimmy Butler suffered a groin injury in the second period and only played nine minutes.
Stepping in for Butler, at least offensively, was Furkan Korkmaz.
Seemingly perpetually in coach Brett Brown’s doghouse, the No. 26 pick in the 2016 draft had played a total of 11 minutes in the Sixers’ previous two games. His lack of playing time had bewildered many fans.
With Brown forced to play him due to Butler’s injury, Korkmaz scored a career-high 18 points and also contributed with some fine passing and even hit the boards pretty well with seven rebounds.
With Korkmaz leading the way, the Sixers pulled away in the fourth quarter and held as much as a 21-point lead.
The Sixers have gotten this year into a nasty habit of letting an unknown player have the game of his life against them. This time it was guard Luke Kennard, who scored a career-high 28 points.
One must give credit to Detroit for hanging in there for a long time despite a decimated roster. Several times they cut the deficit to three points in the second half but then the SIxers would always respond.
Next up is a Brooklyn Nets team on Wednesday who have given the 76ers a lot of trouble so far.