Sunday was certainly a sight for sore eyes! After dropping four straight, including losing to the then 15 win New Orleans Pelicans, the Sixers surprised me by not only defeating the 35 win Minnesota Timberwolves, but doing so in dominant fashion.
I saw this pretty snazzy short on YouTube I had to share. Tyrese Maxey literally dunked on two Timberwolves, including superstar Anthony Edwards. That was GLORIOUS. V.J. Edgecombe continues to rise too!
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Sheesh, the Sixers really needed this one in a bad way, and they got it done without Joel Embiid. It's nice to see the team show life without him in the lineup finally. They looked like a different team, a team fed up with this losing streak.
Tyrese ended up scoring a really strong 39 points, outscoring Ant by eleven points. That's pretty impressive honestly, eye-opening!
Tyrese finally got some substantial help too with V.J. Edgecombe dropping 24 and Quentin Grimes adding 19. I've been wanting to see Grimes perform better! Kelly Oubre Jr. dropped 18 as well, this man is underrated!! Oubre Jr. also had four steals!
Even after their recent four game skid, the Sixers somehow cling to their sixth seed by just a half game. Well, it's sort of a full game since the Sixers own the tie-breaker over the Magic after going 2-1 against them this season, and they won't be playing them again in the regular season, so that's secured. But the Heat are firmly in the mix as well for the sixth seed. The Sixers lost their only matchup vs the Heat back in November and still have two games against them this season so that tie breaker is still waiting to be sorted out.
Joel Embiid is questionable for tonight's matchup against the Pacers. So we shall see. I hate complaining about the guy if he's injured, it's simply annoying how there's never like a clear cut reason, ever. Just infinite 'soreness'. I mean, I've been watching sports all my life and this up in the air, question mark of a situation/injury is not exactly all that common, at least not for this long of a time. Embiid is great and ultimately will go down as a Sixers legend, no doubt about it, but it gets a bit tiresome as a fan sometimes literally never knowing his availability.
Nevertheless, the Sixers proved they are capable without him, Maxey is the man, and the supporting cast has shown promise. For the most part. The Pacers are again one of the worst teams in the league so ideally the Sixers will leave tonight with a two-game win streak regardless if Embiid plays. Hopefully the Sixers learned their lesson against New Orleans.
Sunday was a breath of fresh air. We are nearly in March, the playoffs are not too far away now!
This season is miles better than last year, and I'm glad.
