Sixers don't lose at home anymore

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Friday night remains the Sixers' night this season. They're 5-2 on the season at the end of the work week — the two losses coming in the home opener to the Celtics and the double-OT game against the Thunder — with a +11.2 scoring margin that includes blowout wins of the Pistons, Spurs and now the Pelicans, who the Sixers dispatched 100-82 last night at the Wells Fargo Center. 

The 18-point margin, remarkably, was not even properly indicative of the game's overall thrust, as the Sixers led by 18 at the end of one and as much as 35 late in the third, thoroughly avenging their tough loss in New Orleans back in December. That time, the Pelicans had DeMarcus Cousins, who has since been lost for the season, while Philly was missing Joel Embiid, who played through ankle soreness and posted one of his most efficient stat lines of the season: 24 points (on 11 of 18) shooting with 16 boards, two steals and a block — all in just 24 minutes of game action, as JoJo was able to sit the entire fourth with the Sixers leading by 30+.

And at home, the Sixers have basically been unbeatable since the calendar turned to 2018. For the 2017 part of the season, the Sixers were just 7-10 in Philly, including five straight Ls to end the year. In January and February, though, they're a spotless 8-0 at the Wells Fargo Center, including wins over the Spurs, Raptors, Heat and Wizards. The only "home" loss the Sixers have suffered in 2018 was actually in London, with their lousy come-from-ahead loss against Boston that for some reason counts as the Sixers hosting. 

The good news for Philly is that they have three more games at home now — starting tonight against the Clippers, also on the second night of a back-to-back, and then against the Knicks on Monday and Heat on Wednesday, before the Sixers take a week off for the All-Star break. It could be a chance for the Sixers to make up ground in the crowded East, or at least hopefully regain some separation from the surging Pistons, who finally lost for the first time in the Blake Griffin era against the Clippers last night. Good times for the Process Phaithful … as long as you don't watch any of the team's press conferences.

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