The Philadelphia 76ers lost their first game of the season Friday night against the Boston Celtics, but you can’t say this team has any quit in them. They almost completed yet another fourth-quarter comeback, having two cracks at a game-winning bucket in the one-point defeat. Now, the Sixers have about as good of a bounceback spot as you could ask for, making the short trip to Brooklyn to face an 0-5 Nets team firmly in a rebuilding season even just two weeks into the campaign.
If there’s one fly
in the ointment for Philadelphia, it’s that Joel Embiid will not take the court tonight, having a planned rest day to join the three guys who missed the Boston game on the sidelines.
Still, as 5.5-point favorites per FanDuel, the Sixers should be able to dodge their first two-game losing streak of the season. Among their five losses, the Nets have dropped contests by 19 points to Charlotte and 28 points to Houston. They drafted and kept five players in the first round of the 2025 NBA draft in a full-on youth movement. Altogether, the Nets have 11 players on the roster 24 years old or younger, and not a single 30-year-old in sight. One of those 2025 first rounders, 27th overall pick Danny Wolf, is out tonight due to an ankle injury, joining veteran Haywood Highsmith (knee) on the injury report.
After a restricted free agent saga that, like Quentin Grimes’ offseason, ended in signing the qualifying offer, Cam Thomas is leading Brooklyn in scoring at 23.4 points per game. Following an offseason trade with the Nuggets that saw Cam Johnson sent to Denver, Michael Porter Jr. is second on the team with a 21.6 points-per-game average. Brooklyn’s offense has been fine to start the season (mid-pack at 15th in the NBA in offensive rating per NBA.com), but their defense has been absolutely abysmal. The Nets’ league-worst 129.1 defensive rating is as far from the 29th-place Pelicans as the Pelicans are from the 12th-place Rockets. It’s certainly understandable with as many young pieces learning the NBA game as the Nets have, but it’s an area the Sixers should be able to exploit. Behind their scorching hot backcourt, the Sixers have the second-best offensive rating in the league, only trailing the Rockets. Seeing Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe go to work against an extremely gettable defense is reason enough to tune in tonight.
Philadelphia has established an identity as a club that will keep fighting and work their way back from second-half deficits. With no rest disadvantage and against a Nets team where they should be able to control the action, let’s see if the Sixers can play the role of frontrunners for a change. Thrilling, last-minute victories make for high drama and good content here on the interwebs, but let’s see if Nick Nurse’s club can pull off an old-fashioned double-digit win in the largest of the five boroughs.
Game Details
When: Sunday, November 2, 6:00 p.m. ET
Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers
