The 14-6 Sixers will have a chance to improve to .500 away from home this season when they play the 11-8 Pacers on Sunday night.
Here are the essentials:
- When: 7 p.m. with Sixers Pregame Live at 6 p.m.
- Where: Bankers Life Fieldhouse
- Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the MyTeams app
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And here are three storylines to watch:
Embiid questionable again
Joel Embiid is currently listed as questionable because of back tightness, just as he was leading into his 37-point, 11-rebound night in the Sixers’ win Friday over the Timberwolves. Mike Scott will miss his eighth consecutive game with right knee swelling.
Embiid said he received treatment on his back at 1 a.m. the day of the Minnesota game (or night before, depending on how one looks at it).
NBA
“It’s been pretty tight but … you’ve got to keep pushing,” he said. “I want us to build momentum. We’ve got to keep winning these games, every single one of them. Nights like tonight can help in the long run where I don’t have to play 30 minutes or more. We’ve got to keep doing it. It’s tight, but that’s not an excuse. We’ve just got to keep it going.”
If Embiid is unavailable, it will be interesting to see who head coach Doc Rivers starts. The last time Embiid sat out, Rivers wished he’d gone with Tony Bradley to open the game instead of Dwight Howard.
In a class of his own
According to Cleaning the Glass, Matisse Thybulle’s 3.8 steal percentage ranks first among all NBA wings. He holds the same distinction with block percentage (2.7 percent), and both numbers have been rising since he cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols in mid-January.
Thybulle’s jumper isn’t falling regularly, though, and it’s not an isolated slump. Since returning from a right knee injury last January, Thybulle has made 33 of 125 three-point shots (26.4 percent).
Tobias Harris believes Thybulle will have better days offensively soon enough.
“We know what Matisse brings to the table defensively,” he said after Thybulle’s three-steal, two-block performance against the Timberwolves. “Tonight you just saw an exhibition of how effective he is on the floor. He gets his hands on a lot of loose basketballs on the floor — his hustle, his length out there. So, you can put him on anybody pretty much one through five, and he’s able to hold his own. That gave us a huge spark, especially with the second unit.
"As time continues to come and he continues to get confident, he’s going to start knocking down those shots and taking advantage of different ways he can score offensively, and that’s going to be key for us.”
Tested by Turner?
Pacers center Myles Turner leads the NBA in blocks with 4.1 per game, and he’s been very effective in general at protecting the rim. Opponents have shot only 40.7 percent on attempts from less than six feet away guarded by Turner, per NBA.com/Stats.
Indiana relies a lot on Turner’s interior defense, too. The team is allowing opponents to take a league-high 38.9 percent of their shots at the rim, per Cleaning the Glass. The mid-range games of players like Seth Curry, Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey will theoretically be important when Turner is on the floor as a counter to his high-level at-the-rim defense.
Historically, the individual Embiid vs. Myles Turner matchup has been dominated by Embiid. If the Sixers All-Star center plays, expect him to seek contact from Turner early in the game.
“My goal every single night is to get the other centers or the other team’s best players in foul trouble,” Embiid said Friday.