Saturday night’s matchup between the 21-4 Warriors and 14-12 Sixers is a family affair that might go down in history.
Here are the essentials for the game:
- When: 8:30 p.m. ET
- Where: Wells Fargo Center
- Broadcast: ABC
- Live stream: WatchESPN
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And here are three storylines to watch:
Older brother chasing record
Ten made three-pointers on Saturday would give Warriors star and early-season MVP frontrunner Stephen Curry 2,974 triples in his career, breaking Ray Allen’s record.
Could Curry pull it off in Philadelphia? Based on his résumé, there’s no good reason to count him out. Per Basketball Reference, Curry has hit at least nine threes in a game 33 times. One of those occasions was when he shot 10 for 17 from three-point range last season in a 49-point night at Wells Fargo Center.
NBA
Curry played on Wednesday like someone aiming to pass Allen as soon as possible, attempting 17 threes in 33 minutes as Golden State beat the Blazers.
Sixers guard Seth Curry could perhaps redirect some of the spotlight on Saturday with a strong game. He’s followed up an impressive postseason by averaging a career-high 16.3 points on 50.9 percent shooting from the floor, 40.8 percent from three-point range.
The 31-year-old isn’t worried about how his performances are perceived relative to his brother’s, though he must be aware the NBA world is fixated on Stephen Curry at the moment.
“I don’t know how much attention I’m getting or not, to be honest,” Seth Curry said after the Sixers’ shootaround. “I play every night and try to do what I can, try to be better every day and be consistent with what I’m doing. And just try to get wins.”
Can’t afford any lulls
The Sixers aren’t the only team to succumb to the Warriors’ third-quarter blitz this season.
They couldn’t hold a 19-point lead last month, allowing Golden State to surge ahead in the third quarter and pull away in the fourth. Through 25 games, the Warriors have outscored the opposition by a league-leading average of 6.5 points per game in the third. The Jazz, who the Sixers lost to Thursday, are second at plus-3.1.
Turnovers and lapses in energy tend to hurt when Golden State is the opponent.
“They a good team,” Seth Curry said. “It’s nothing we didn’t already know. They’re the best team in the league right now. They wear on you for 48 minutes; you’ve got to bring it for the entire game. Getting down a lot or being up a lot, it doesn’t mean much against them. They’re a team that comes in waves, so you can’t have a letdown for four, five minutes.”
Hoping to capitalize on good health
Sixers head coach Doc Rivers joked Thursday that he nearly “went into shock” when informed before playing Utah that his team had no injuries.
Indeed, illnesses and injuries have felt like constants this year for the Sixers. Rivers wasn’t technically correct that the Sixers had a full team available — Ben Simmons (personal reasons) will miss a 27th straight game and two-way player Grant Riller is sidelined with right shoulder soreness — but it’s true that they’re finally not so shorthanded.
Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid were out for the season’s first Sixers-Warriors meeting but should start on Saturday. After experiencing abdominal pain on his right side against Utah, Embiid looked like himself taking jumpers at the end of shootaround.
For Golden State, Klay Thompson (right Achilles tendon recovery) and James Wiseman (right knee injury recovery) remain out. Andre Iguodala (right knee soreness) was listed as questionable.