The Philadelphia 76ers fell to the Golden State Warriors Monday evening, with a final score of 107-96. The Sixers’ grip on 1st place in the East becomes a bit looser, now sitting at 39-18 and just a game ahead of the Brooklyn Nets. The Warriors improve to 29-29 and creep ever closer toward the 8th seed in the Western Conference.
Absences of both Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris proved too much to overcome for the Sixers, as players not named Joel Embiid hardly produced. Philly shot 39.3% from the floor as a team. And while the Warriors did not exactly light the floor on fire (44.7% FG), they were Steph Curry was unguardable from deep.
Curry stole the show in South Philly, torching the Sixers for 49 points including 10 of 17 from behind the arc. Overall, Curry went 14 of 28 from the floor and 11 of 12 from the line. Andrew Wiggins contributed another 16 points (6 of 11 FG, 3 of 5 FT) for Golden State and Damion Lee’s 12 points (5 of 6 FG) rounds out the only three Warriors to score in double digits.
For the Sixers, Joel Embiid got his 28 points but struggled from the field, going 8 for 21 (11 of 14 FT). Embiid dealt with constant double teams, and while Embiid dished out some nifty passes to escape the pressure, the rest of the squad often failed to capitalize. Danny Green was an exception, hitting open shots and going 4 of 7 from 3PT to score 12 points. Matisse Thybulle provided 13 points off the bench (6 of 11 FG) and Tyrese Maxey (10 points, 5 of 9 FG) had some impressive scores from the paint when the Sixers needed it late in the 2nd half. But ultimately, the Sixers lacked fire power offensively, coming up short of 100 points for just the sixth time this season (1-5 in those games).
The Sixers are off Tuesday evening, but will have an opportunity to get back in the win column Wednesday night (Apr. 21) when the Phoenix Suns travel to Philadelphia. Redemption won’t be easy: the Suns enter the contest at 2nd place in the Western Conference at 41-16 and are coming off of a 128-127 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Notable: George Hill made his Sixers debut Monday against Golden State. He played 17 minutes (more than I’d have predicted) and looked as you’d expect a guy to look who hasn’t played a game since January 24th—rusty. Hill scored just 2 points on 1 of 5 from the field, with 2 rebounds, blocks, assists, and turnovers each. Defensively, he was asked to guard Steph at times and, well, what can you do.