Welcome to the NBA bubble, where Ben Simmons has to leave for knee surgery and Joel Embiid injures his ankle at the start of a game leaving the Philadelphia 76ers to find their own way.
Oh, to be a Philadelphia 76ers fan.
While watching this game I had many flashbacks to the Process days. With Ben Simmons out with a partially dislocated kneecap and needing surgery and then Joel Embiid hurting his ankle early in the game, Brett Brown was forced to run some interesting lineups. One of my “favorites” included a lineup of Norvel Pelle, Alec Burks, Glenn Robinson, Furkan Korkmaz, and Matisse Thybulle.
The Sixers seemed pretty disjointed even during the short time that Embiid was on the court. Then it just got worse over the first quarter and even bleeding into the second quarter. In a surprising turn of events, the mismatched Sixers then started to find their stride. With help from Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, and even Al Horford, they went from a deficit of 16 to seven in what seemed like no time at all.
All the Richardson haters were completely put to shame after he lit it up from all areas of the court. He became red-hot from beyond as his teammates looked to get him the ball to knock a quick 3 down. Burks then caught fire and was hitting shots left and right while having crazy focus to get a bucket.
With a momentum-gaining three by Horford, the Sixers came within one to win with 12 seconds left. In the end, the goal to get the ball to Richardson fell short as the Trail Blazers anticipated this tactic. This was not the game I was expecting, especially when Jo went out. It was very much a Sixers move to come back in that fashion but not finish the job.