The Sixers (20-11) are looking to go home with back-to-back wins on the road as they face the San Antonio Spurs (15-15) at the AT&T Center. After starting out their six-game home stretch with four consecutive wins against the Lakers, Jazz, Suns and Clippers, the Spurs dropped their last game to Chicago.
• When: 8:30 p.m. ET with Sixers Pregame Live at 8 p.m.
• Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app
Here are three storylines to watch.
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Turnovers? What turnovers?
The most impressive part about Ben Simmons’ triple-double stat line the other night was committing zero turnovers. Over the first 30 games of the season, Simmons was averaging 3.5 turnovers to 7.7 assists per game, and if you look at the Sixers' wins this season, a lower turnover count for Simmons has also been a contributing factor. The Spurs have not been a team to force turnovers this season, so I’ll have my eye on that turnover column for Simmons. Hopefully, it will be another goose egg by the end of the night.
Jimmy Butler vs. DeMar DeRozan
The last time Jimmy Butler saw DeMar DeRozan, it was in a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey for the Spurs' season opener. I’ve got a feeling that Butler remembers the eventual winning shot in the final minute that DeRozan banked in driving hard to the basket and pulling up from 12 feet. It’ll be fun to watch these two duel it out again tonight.
NBA
Random stat
The Spurs and three-pointers, far from two things that go together, and that’s because they shoot the least amount of threes in the league (24.0 per game). But, making them has been another story this year. The Spurs are tied with the Warriors for the best percentage in the league at 38.9 percent, and that’s because they’ve got five players on their roster shooting over 40 percent from three this season — Pau Gasol (57.1 percent), Dante Cunningham (51.0 percent), Rudy Gay (47.8 percent), Davis Bertrans (44.7 percent) and Bryn Forbes (41.5 percent). Oh, and Patty Mills just missed the cut at 39.5 percent. Three-point defense is probably not the first thing on the Sixers' mind tonight, but if you see a Spur go up for a three, you better close out.
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