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Raise your hand if you had Shake Milton starting a national television game against the LA Lakers on a Saturday night in late January.

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Yeah, me neither, but it worked out just fine. Shake held up well, and the trio of Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Al Horford carried the load, scoring 73 combined points to make up for the absence of Joel Embiid and Josh Richardson.

It was prototypical Sixers home game against a good opponent, which means that they were up for this one. The energy level was high, the defense was solid, and they out-shot Los Angeles 78-76 on the strength of 12 steals and a +6 total rebounding margin, which negated 21 turnovers. LA couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from deep, finishing 6-30 from three point range but cutting the lead to five points late in the fourth while on the final game of an opposite-coast road trip.

It was a 7-0 Al Horford run that sealed the deal, a beautiful pick and pop three-pointer with Ben Simmons handling the ball and collapsing the paint like only he can. The Sixers needed their highly-paid stars to play like stars on Saturday night, and that’s exactly what they got.

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