Sixers/Lakers tomorrow night.
No Josh Richardson, who is out with a hamstring strain.
No Joel Embiid, who is still healing after surgery on his dislocated finger.
Embiid, named an All Star on Thursday night, said Friday he hopes to play next week:
Joel Embiid was named to his third straight All-Star game Thursday night, finishing second in the weighted voting for Eastern Conference front court players.
Ben Simmons finished 7th among back court players, and while he did very well in the media and player vote, look at how the fans rated him:
Sports Betting Updates
The NBA trade deadline is February 6th, two weeks from today.
Cue the numerous reports linking team X to player Y, with language like “interested in” or “inquired about” or whatever else Woj and the other news breakers can come up with.
Let’s bite on this one, via Kevin O’Connor at The Ringer:
Per Shams:
MRI on 76ers guard Josh Richardson showed slight strain of left hamstring and he’s expected to be re-evaluated in two-to-three weeks, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 23, 2020
That timing here is iffy because the Sixers have a lot of important games coming up. Three weeks would take Richardson to February 13th, which would cause him to miss games against the Lakers, Warriors, Hawks, Celtics, Heat, Bucks, Grizzlies, Bulls, and Clippers. The Sixers then get nine days off after that game before hosting the Nets at home.
That’s the good news, the fact that this bumps into the All-Star break. Of course, Joel Embiid is still out, so it’s gonna be rough sledding minus two starters until he can rejoin the lineup.
Woof.
Kevin, Bob, Anthony, and Russ address the hatred for Andy Reid, recap the Championship Games, and offer early thoughts on the Super Bowl matchup. They then break down San Francisco’s dominant performances and address Anthony’s take that Pat Mahomes is overrated. “Big Bet Bob” gives some historical numbers on the Super Bowl coin flip. They then update the Buzzergate situation and give their opinions of what it would take to strip Houston of their World Series crown. Finally, a quick roundup of Sixers, Phillies, and Eagles points.
*This episode of Crossing Broadcast is brought to you by DraftKings Sportsbook and Odd Logic Brewing Co.
Please subscribe to the show ([Apple Podcasts] [Spotify] [Google Play] [Stitcher] [iHeartRadio] [RSS]), leave a 5 star review, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @Kevin_Kinkead @AntSanPhilly @BobWankelCB @JoyOnBroad @CrossingBcast
Audio after the jump: Continue Reading
Brett Brown noted on January 7th that his Sixers team was committing fewer turnovers as a byproduct of more set plays being dialed up in the half court.
That was before Joel Embiid dislocated his finger, a time when Brown’s squad was struggling offensively and needed a boost to get themselves unstuck and rolling again after grinding to a stagnant halt near the season’s halfway point. Embiid only played two games in January but turned the ball over only five times total, a 2.5 per game average number that was much lower than the 3.2 and 3.0 numbers he posted in December and November, respectively. It would have extrapolated nicely, we assume, had he remained healthy.
Regardless of Embiid’s absence, and whether or not that’s the prime catalyst for the change, the Sixers are now a top-15 ball protection squad in the NBA, having climbed out of the bottom ten to land in a three-way tie for 11th place, turning the ball over just 14.6 times per game on the season.
It’s the matchup you’ve all been waiting for.
Not Chiefs/Niners.
It’s Crossing Broad vs. Branded Sports on The Philly Pheud, hosted by Mike Missanelli and Natalie Egenolf of 97.5 the Fanatic.
CB was represented by Kyle, Bob, Russ, and Craig, who went to Harrah’s Chester Philadelphia back in December in a battle for blogging supremacy. You can watch the entire episode on Youtube now, after the jump:
Robert Covington is an interesting case study in Philadelphia.
Process supporters loved the guy. He was, after all, a diamond in the rough who was pulled out of the G-League, developed over the course of several years, and then molded into a bona fide NBA starter. He earned a legitimate contract in what became a feel-good NBA story.
Anti-Hinkie types really disliked Covington, and they’ll always point out his benching in the 2018 Boston playoff series, a crop of five games that included 0-6 and 0-8 field goal lines, which resulted in T.J. McConnell being inserted into game four’s starting lineup. The Sixers lost the series 4-1 and RoCo was traded the following season.
