Embarrassing — Sixers Lose to Timberwolves

The 76ers lost 112-99 to the Timberwolves Wednesday Night in Minnesota in an embarrassing showing.

Joel Embiid’s absence clearly affected Philadelphia as every single starter had a negative +/-. The Sixers have now lost their second game in a row. This also marks an unimpressive 2-4 record in the past 6 games, however, they still are top 5 in the East with a now 10-5 record. Even with this loss, it seems as if the Sixers are a promising squad that can be a threat to any team in the league. In fact, the 5 teams the 76ers lost to have a combined 49-22 record, which is a 0.690 win percentage. This means the only teams that Philadelphia is losing to are good teams that are some of the best in the NBA.

Anthony Edwards led the T-Wolves to a 13-point victory thanks to his 31-point game, which probably wouldn’t have occurred if Embiid was defending him. Karl-Anthony Towns also should be thanking Joel Embiid for not playing during his Thanksgiving dinner as he scored 23 points and snagged 11 rebounds. Simply put, Joel Embiid’s first absence of the season cost the Sixers this game, and fans should not be too upset with this. It’s better to have an uninjured MVP candidate for most of the season than risk further injury just to win one game. However, players like Tyrese Maxey and Tobias really needed to step up without Embiid and they did not do this. Maxey and Harris both had a lackluster 16 and 15 points respectively, and each had a -15 and -23 +/-. With Maxey being the number one option, much more was expected out of him and he did not show up.

The good side of this game was that the team that Philadelphia played is currently one of the hottest in the NBA, so it isn’t too bad that they dropped this one. Not only this, but Marcus Morris Sr. got the starting nod (although he ended up playing only 16 minutes, while Paul Reed played 26 off the bench), and played pretty well. He scored 16 points while rejecting 2 shots and snagging 4 rebounds. Morris definitely could be an emergency starter once again if needed. Paul Reed on the other hand had a decent game, as he scored 10 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Not only this, but he also had 2 steals and 4 blocks. Reed also could start if Nick Nurse wanted a defensive-first lineup.

Philadelphia will do battle with Rookie of the Year candidate Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday Night in Oklahoma. Joel Embiid’s status is up in the air for this game, but it should be expected he will play as he is just dealing with a Day-to-Day injury.