The Process is Paying Off
by Ben Revak ’21, Sports Editor
The Philadelphia 76ers continue to pull off fourth-quarter wins, earning them a first place ranking in the NBA with a 5–1 record. The toughest opponent they’ve played has been the Portland Trail Blazers, who were up 21 points on the 76ers early in the game. However, the 76ers experience from their wins versus the Celtics, Pistons, Hawks, and Timberwolves gave them the confidence to stick together and come back one point at a time.
Against the Trail Blazers, the Philadelphia 76ers were without their best player, Joel Embiid, because of a suspension that he had to serve. The 76ers star was suspended for getting into a scuffle with Timberwolves center Karl Anthony Towns the game before. The rival players got into a fight because tempers were fuming, due to majority of plays in favor of the 76ers. The game was so out of hand that after the fight happened it was only midway through the third quarter and the Philadelphia 76ers were up 20 points. Punches were thrown, but luckily for both teams, nobody was injured and it just resulted in two-game suspensions for both players. This trash talk continued off the court when Embiid posted on his Instagram, “Great team win!!! I was raised around lions and a cat pulled on me tonight.”
Philadelphia 76ers fans are lucky because Embiid not only strives to win every game, but he enjoys getting into people’s heads with his trash talk. Embiid’s cockiness and confidence have been backed up with his play because even with his early exit from the game versus the Timberwolves, he had 19 points, five rebounds, and two assists in only 20 minutes.
However, with all the early success, the Philadelphia 76ers knew going into Portland with a 3–0 record was going to be a difficult task. The Portland Trail Blazers first-team all-pro point guard Damian Lillard has been nothing but spectacular throughout his career. Lillard is averaging 31.1 points a game so far this year, which is third in the NBA, and also averaging seven assists and five rebounds, too. His partner CJ McCollum is averaging 20.7 points per game. The only way to beat the Trail Blazers is by neutralizing those two players and by putting 120 plus points up on the scoreboard. Another challenge the Philadelphia 76ers had was that they were going to need their role players to step up in the absence of Embiid.
What Philadelphia 76ers fans knew was that the other four starters Tobias Harris, Al Horford, Ben Simmons, and Josh Richardson were going to step up, but they were going to need more production from their bench play. The crazy scenario was the 76ers were down double digits in the fourth quarter. However, Simmons with 18 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds put them ahead of the Trail Blazers by controlling the offense and getting it to Furkan Korkmaz for a clutch three-pointer with only 2.2 seconds left in the game. Harris and Horford led the 76ers against the Trail Blazers by combining for 48 points. Richardson even put up 17 points, six assists, and four rebounds. The big difference between players was bench player Korkmaz, who capitalized on his opportunity with more playing time, which contributed to his performance of 11 points, three assists, and two rebounds.
Unfortunately, for the Philadelphia 76ers, Embiid’s absence cost them their first loss to the Phoenix Suns. The 76ers lost by five points because they gave up 40 points to the Suns’ star shooting guard Devin Booker, as well as 21 points to the Suns’ point guard Ricky Rubio. The positives from the night were Horford putting up 32 points and Korkmaz stepping up as a starter this time putting up 20 points.
The future looks bright for the Philadelphia 76ers. Embiid will be back to play the Utah Jazz in Utah on November 6. Tune into NBA TV to watch the 76ers in action against the Utah Jazz on November 6 and when they play the Denver Nuggets on November 8.
