Connect with us

Features

Philadelphia 76ers Weekly Report: Road Trippin’

76ers
(Bill Streicher / Imagn Images)

Game 30: Monday, Dec. 30th, 2024

Philadelphia 76ers at Portland Trail Blazers

Final Score: PHI 125 – POR 103

The Sixers continued their hot road trip with a clean victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. They had no one to stop Joel Embiid, who put up a dominant 37 points with nine boards. Guerschon Yabusele and Kelly Oubre Jr. were the big non-star contributors, as usual, and Oubre even chipped in a whopping eight steals. His presence will be sorely missed in the coming games. 

The Trail Blazers have a number of microwave scorers and solid role-players but no star, and it’s tough for them to keep up against actually good teams. They got a good game this time from Anfernee Simons but a poor one from Shaedon Sharpe, and that can be enough to sink them.

Not much to say about this one, the Sixers took care of business against a poor team missing a key player in Jerami Grant. The Sixers have done a great job in December with that and find themselves in the thick of the playoff hunt.

Paul George and Joel Embiid

Howard Lao/AP

Game 31: Wednesday, Jan. 1st, 2025

Philadelphia 76ers at Sacramento Kings

Final Score: SAC 113 – PHI 107

This one hurts badly. With a chance to extend the winning streak to five and every opportunity to do so, the Sixers had their first really blown game of the season. Not an auspicious start to the year. They were up nine with 3:34 left in the game and then somehow proceeded to score zero points the rest of the way. Some truly horrendous turnovers and missed shots erased what was actually a pretty solid game for Maxey and Paul George.

George dropped 30/8/5, while Maxey had 27 points and, 7 assists, and five steals. They also combined for nine turnovers, which is unacceptable for your lead ball handlers, and three came in that disaster stretch in the fourth. Oubre and Embiid being out definitely didn’t help matters, and it is a shame to “give up” these games due to rest requirements. 

This game also featured why Yabusele can struggle at the five against players like Domantas Sabonis. The Sixers were brutally rebounded almost by Sabonis alone. He had 21 boards, including nine offensive. He looked like a man amongst boys on the glass. Meanwhile the interior defense in general was a mess, with De’Aaron Fox and Sabonis combining to go 21/30 shooting. Yabusele can do a lot of things, but going up against a rebounder like Sabonis is not one of them. 

76ers

Sergio Estrada/Imagn Images

Game 32: Thursday, Jan. 2nd, 2025

Philadelphia 76ers at Golden State Warriors

Final Score: GSW 139 – PHI 105

The rough start to the year continued on the back-to-back. The Sixers were completely non-competitive from the jump. Sometimes, you just get got, and this is one of those times. Stephen Curry may be older, but every once in a while, he’s still good to go full nuclear, and he did it again in this one. Yabusele might be getting some PTSD. He was 11/15, including a ridiculous 8/8 from deep, and also had 10 assists. 

It’s another game where a crazy performance from the other team erased a solid PG game on offense, which is not all that common. He chipped in 19 on 7/12 from the field. Embiid wasn’t efficient but still put up 28/14. This time, it was Maxey who struggled, but even had he been playing better, there was no denying Curry and the Warriors.

A back-to-back against a good team at the tail end of a long road trip is always tough, and you can chalk this one up as a schedule loss. It happens.

76ers

Godofredo A. Vazquez/AP

Game 33: Saturday Jan. 4th, 2025

Philadelphia 76ers at Brooklyn Nets

Final Score: PHI 123 – BKN 94

The Sixers ended their road trip on a high note, blowing out the Brooklyn Nets. It was a good bounce-back after two bad losses—bad in different ways, but bad nonetheless. Embiid played well, but some teams are just incapable of dealing with him. Caleb Martin was an unexpected hero, scoring 17 on ⅞ shooting. 

Of course, this game wasn’t close at any point. The Nets really trotted out a G-League team for this one. They had no Cameron Johnson or Cam Thomas, so they basically had zero scoring punch. It’s not a win to write home about, but a win is a win. Take care of business against the East, and that’s all you need. 

The 76ers ended their six game road trip across the US 4-2. Most of the games were against bad teams, but they won a prize over the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day. They sit two games out of the tenth seed, but 5-10 are all jam-packed in the East, so they are also just four games out of the fifth seed. They are well within position to make a run, but as easy as December may have been, January is tough. The Sixers have a lot of back-to-backs and face some of the best teams in the NBA, including the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the New York Knicks, and the Denver Nuggets twice. They need to stay in it enough to make a move in the relatively easier months of February and March.

The Sixers ended their road trip in dominate fashion.

Vincet Carchietta/Imagn Images

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Articles

Featured Writers

More in Features