The Philadelphia 76ers defeat the Los Angeles Lakers despite the absence of Joel Embiid and Josh Richardson.
Due to the injury of two of the Philadelphia 76ers starters, Sixers fans had little hope about their team pulling out a big win at home. Early on, we saw how well the unexpected combination of Ben Simmons and Shake Milton worked out. It looked as if they’d been starting together the whole season.
Matisse Thybulle has been playing extremely well lately but was missing the shooting element of his game. He must have flipped some switch because he hit two threes in the first half. Along with that, he hustled for three steals in just the first quarter.
It’s a shock that LeBron James still has a voice after this game with how much he argued with the refs after every single call…especially against Milton. Towards the end of the first half, we saw the Lakers begin to panic. They were playing down to the Sixers’ level, while the Sixers were just working their butts off in any way they could.
The Sixers exemplified the need for a shooter after a wacky offensive sequence. They showed a lot of great offensive rebounding and hustle but had many opportunities to knock down shots but couldn’t execute. Mike Scott was one that couldn’t notch in a bucket but he has been struggling as of late.
Tobias Harris quietly had 21 points halfway through the third quarter, until he went in for a thunderous slam past Kyle Kuzma for 23 points. Not too long after this did the Sixers make us a little worried. The safety-net of a 20-point lead was cut down to just 12. Raul Neto came up huge with a three and Anthony Davis whiffed a three of his own to give the Sixers a little wiggle room.
LeBron James did some LeBron James things as he worked to pull his team back into the game. In doing this, he passed Kobe Bryant to become the third all-time leading scorer with 33,644 points.
My fear comes in the form of the Sixers during the fourth quarter. They give us hope the whole game, but eventually fall apart during the final minutes of the game. Al Horford came up huge within the concluding moments. Horford hit a clutch mid-range jumper, followed by a crucial three to put the Sixers up to a comfortable ten-point lead. This led to the Lakers conceding and taking out their starters.
The Sixers did the impossible without two of their starters.