The Philadelphia 76ers made a bold trade to hasten their championship aspirations.
The new-look Sixers will feature a much different roster when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
Before Thursday’s trade deadline, the Sixers reportedly traded Ben Simmons, Andre Drummond, Seth Curry and two first-round draft picks for James Harden and Paul Millsap. It’s unlikely that Harden or Millsap will be cleared to play by Friday’s tip-off.
Simmons hadn’t played one second this season for the Sixers in a nasty holdout with the franchise, which has not won a championship since 1983 and haven’t advanced to the NBA Finals since 2001.
The Sixers began Thursday in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a 32-22 mark. Following a 114-109 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, it was evident that Most Valuable Player candidate Joel Embiid needed a second star to push the club into championship contention.
Embiid had 34 points and 12 rebounds, his 21st consecutive game with at least 25 points.
“(We cannot) fold under pressure and know what we have to do and know that they’re gonna take away the first option,” Embiid said, referring to Philly’s execution down the stretch. “So what’s the second and third option? So you know, as a team and a coaching staff we all need to do a better job of just executing and talking about it.”
Sixers coach Doc Rivers could sense his team was a bit distracted. Moving forward, he’s hopeful everything will stabilize.
“The next time we play, we’ll have our team,” Rivers said. “From a coaching standpoint, I can’t wait for that personally. I’m really looking forward to that.”
The Thunder will hope to avoid a fourth consecutive loss when they visit the Sixers.
Oklahoma City fell 117-98 to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.
Theo Maledon and Aleksej Pokusevski scored 18 points each and Lu Dort added 15, but the Thunder started slow and never truly recovered. It has been that way on numerous occasions this season for the rebuilding Thunder.
“Physicality is a choice and I thought we left something to be desired there to start the game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought we got that into the game and got ourselves back, especially late in the second quarter. We stood up a little bit, which was good, but good lesson for us because that’s a team you can’t really counter punch … especially with how well they’re playing.”
Maledon’s improvement has been evident, most notably to the coaching staff. While the victories haven’t been there, Maledon continues to get better. He scored 11 points in the fourth quarter and looked as confident as ever.
“The G League minutes and all the invisible work — the non-game that these guys put in is critical and there’s a cumulative effect of that,” Daigneault said. “You just got to stay with it and those guys have stayed with it. They’ve hit the process well.”
“I think we really played for one another,” Maledon added. “Really trying to make everyone’s life easier by making sure we get the ball to the open guy. That’s something that was positive tonight that we’ve got to keep going.”
