The Sixers (21-14) hosted the New Orleans Pelicans (23-13) on Monday. Philadelphia wanted to avenge Friday’s loss to the Pelicans and start 2023 with a win. New Orleans wanted to right its wrongs from Saturday’s loss to the Grizzlies. Joel Embiid dropped 42 points to lead the Sixers to their 10th straight home win, 120-111.
Before we get to the action, some notes.
Contextual Notes
The Pelicans were without Brandon Ingram, who has a contusion on his left great toe.
Larry Nance Jr. missed the game with neck spasms.
EJ Liddell is out for the season as he recovers from a torn right ACL. Dereon Seabron was on a Two-Way assignment with New Orleans’ G-League affiliate and was unavailable.
Willie Green started CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, Herbert Jones, Zion Williamson, and Jonas Valanciunas.
The Sixers were without Louis King and Julian Champagnie, who are on Two-Way assignments with the Delaware Blue Coats and were unavailable.
Doc Rivers started James Harden, De’Anthony Melton, Tobias Harris, PJ Tucker, and Joel Embiid.
Likes
His status uncertain leading into the official announcement of Philadelphia’s starting lineup due to back soreness, Embiid wasted no time establishing himself and the Sixers’ level of intensity in the first few minutes of the game. He won the battle of physicality on Philadelphia’s first make of the game, claiming the offensive rebound on his own miss on a drive to the rim and going back up with the ball to score up close. Embiid then stroked a midrange jumper and tossed in a triple from the left elbow and wing, respectively, to score the Sixers’ first seven points of the contest.
He didn’t shy away from Valanciunas or any other Pelican that dared stand between him and the basket. The big fella was happy drawing contact in his assault on the basket. Embiid got to the charity stripe a handful of times in the first quarter. He slowed the game down to his pace. Embiid forced the Pelicans to go smaller as he logged foul after foul on them inside. And, of course, he accumulated his usual share of scores in the process.
McCollum didn’t go completely silent after lighting Philadelphia up for 11 threes in their first matchup of the season. But, the Sixers did a much better job of making things difficult for him. First and foremost, the majority of Philadelphia’s first-half turnovers were of the…
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