PLAYER GRADES: Philadelphia 76ers 106, Cleveland Cavaliers 99
By Ryan Wohl
Despite a less-than-stellar performance, the Philadelphia 76ers emerged victorious in Jimmy Butler’s absence on Tuesday.
The Philadelphia 76ers extended their win streak to two games after Tuesday’s seven-point win over the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers. It was nice to see Boban Marjanovic back on the floor after missing the last six games, as he will be a valuable player down the stretch of the season.
It is still disappointing that this team cannot find a way to convincingly beat poor teams by 15 or more points. With Jimmy Butler resting tonight, the time is ticking for this whole starting group to play together by the end of the season and continue to build chemistry. But it has been nice to see Butler realize that he isn’t the first or second option on offense and still impact the game in many ways, rebounding, passing, and on the defensive end.
The 76ers have the fourth easiest schedule for the rest of the season, which should help them secure the third seed and avoid a first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics. Let’s take a look at some player grades for tonights win versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.
A. <strong>38 mins | 26 pts | 10 reb | 8 ast | 1 stl | 0 blk | 2 TO | 10-16 FG |0-0 3PT| 6-8 FT | 4 PF | +11|</strong><p><a rel=. PG. Philadelphia 76ers. BEN SIMMONS
B+. <strong>34 mins | 17 pts | 19 reb | 5 ast | 1 stl | 4 blk | 6 TO | 6-16 FG | 1-3 3PT| 4-4 FT | 2 PF | +9|</strong><p><a rel=. C. Philadelphia 76ers. JOEL EMBIID
B-. <strong>35 mins | 17 pts | 3 reb | 3 ast | 0 stl | 1 blk | 1 TO | 6-15 FG | 4-7 3PT| 1-1 FT | 0 PF | +10|</strong><p><a rel=. SG. Philadelphia 76ers. J.J. REDICK
B. <strong>22 mins | 12 pts | 7 reb | 2 ast | 0 stl | 1 blk | 3 TO | 6-7 FG | 0-1 3PT| 0-0 FT | 4 PF | +13|</strong><p><a rel=. SF. Philadelphia 76ers. JAMES ENNIS III
C+. <strong>14 mins | 11 pts | 5 reb | 2 ast | 0 stl | 1 blk | 2 TO | 4-5 FG | 0-0 3PT| 3-4 FT | 1 PF | -2|</strong><p>In Boban’s first game back he didn’t play a lot of minutes but he showed us he still can be a valuable scoring big man off the bench, as we saw before missing the last six games. Bobi should see increased minutes in the coming games once he is 100 percent healthy. Marjanovic will continue to backup Joel Embiid and provide a force against opossing big men, standing over 7-foot-2.</p>. C. Philadelphia 76ers. BOBAN MARJANOVIC
Philadelphia has 14 games left in their season but they only play five playoff teams in that span, which will benefit this relatively new rotation. One of those games is a highly anticipated matchup with Boston on March 20, which will take place at the Wells Fargo Center. The Sixers need to win that one and get Embiid going early, as he has struggled against them in the past and could see them in the playoffs.
Next. Sixers player rankings - trade deadline shake up. dark
For the rest of the week the 76ers take on the Sacramento Kings at home on Friday night and then travel to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks on Sunday. It would be very nice to see this team have two convincing wins to close out this week.