After a frustrating yet satisfying home victory against the Washington Wizards, the Philadelphia 76ers traveled to the Big Apple for their first road game of the season.
It wouldn’t be a Philadelphia 76ers game if they didn’t make a mediocre player look like an All-Star. Julius Randle went OFF right off the bat, even though he was sporting the Knicks’ trash city edition jerseys (sorry, they’re pretty bad), though it didn’t last too long. With some good ball movement and finally some space on the floor, the offense started to pick up the pace of the game.
It was nice to see Doc Rivers put some trust into the bench players by sending a full bench lineup to start the second quarter. It feels good to have a competent bench that includes a backup center, Dwight Howard, that we can rely on takes some weight off of our shoulders. Not only can he dominate on the defensive end but he can drive aggressively to the hoop (not to mention that he’s working with Ben Simmons to up his game).
After playing some sloppy offense for a while, Joel Embiid came back in and helped facilitate some more efficient and clean looking play. After racking up 20 points in the first half, he proved that he trained even harder this short offseason, even while a new father.
About halfway through the third quarter, we got to really see the starting line up thrive. Seth Curry blessed us with his dribbling and shooting ability (something we’re not very used to). Simmons owned the defensive end of the court as he and Embiid used their long extremities to swat the ball away from the net.
The Sixers travel eastward to Cleveland tomorrow to take on the Cavs at 7:30 p.m. Hopefully they can keep this hot streak up during another road game.