Philadelphia at San Antonio
Time: 7:30 PM (CT), NBA League Pass
Spread: SAS -4
Total: 200
Odds c/o 5dimes
The Philadelphia 76ers are heating up. As winners of eight of its past 10 overall, the Sixers will travel to face the San Antonio Spurs as 4-point underdogs on the road, where Philly has posted an 11-11 mark thus far this season. San Antonio has been without star player Kawhi Leonard, who suffered a setback on his injury and is out indefinitely.
SAN ANT.
The Spurs have gone 5-5 over its past 10 games, but still maintain a 1.5 game lead on the Minnesota Timberwolves for the No. 3 spot in the West. It is tough to consider the Spurs contenders without Leonard in tow and doing his thing, but Gregg Popovich has predictably kept his Spurs competitive while the former Finals MVP recovers. San Antonio has a +3.7 point differential and is 20-3 at home this season. They possess the best home record in the Western Conference.
Most recently, the Spurs disposed of the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-102 and defeated Memphis 108-85. In the win over Memphis, the Spurs got 53 points from its reserves, paced by Patty Mills’ team-high 15 points on 5 of 10 shooting. Pau Gasol had a big game in his 33 minutes, scoring 14 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and dishing out nine assists—coming just an assist shy of a triple-double. Gasol has been steady this month, tallying 10.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists in the month of January, and Popovich is making the most of his playmaking abilities. Gasol has averaged 5.8 assists over his past five games, and over that span he has averaged just 1.8 turnovers per game. No matter what Pop does, he gets the best of his players, and while Gasol’s role has changed to that of a facilitator, he still functions as a great scorer when shooting, evidenced by his 47 percent field goal percentage (58.3 over the past five).
LaMarcus Aldridge has more or less assumed the No. 1 role within the offense as he did while in Portland. The perennial All-Star is averaging 22.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.15 blocks per game while posting the team’s best PER (excluding Leonard’s nine games) of 23.8. Rudy Gay has transitioned well into Pop’s system, and is scoring 11.5 points in just 22 minutes a game while shooting 33 percent on his 2.0 three attempts per game. The Spurs average just 8.9 made threes per game while shooting at a team clip of 36.5 percent, and no Spur makes more than Danny Green’s 1.7 per game. That approach is somewhat atypical of the other successful teams in the West like Golden State and Houston, but the Spurs play the most stringent defense of those clubs in holding opponents to just 97.4 points per game.
PHILLY
Philadelphia has won four of its past five, including its most recent outing, a 115-101 victory over the surging Chicago Bulls. Ben Simmons recorded his fifth triiple-double of the year in that contest, scoring 19 points, dishing 14 assists and grabbing 17 rebounds (three offensive) as the Sixers cruised. Joel Embiid chipped in 22 points and five rebounds, and all Sixers starters reached double-figure scoring. Dario Saric had a standout game with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and he has been coming along recently. Saric closed last season strong, but had kind of faded into the massive shadows casted by Embiid and Simmons to start the season. In his past 10, however, Saric has averaged 17 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists while coming up with 1.1 steals per game, too.
The No. 12 overall pick from 2014 looks to be a star in the making, but will have to continue to assert himself on a team whose focus revolves around its 7-foot-2 All-Star center and likely rookie of the Year in Simmons. Of course, Philly has yet to even add 2017 No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz to the picture, and the team still has a lot of cap flexibility. It might be that the Sixers make a play after an established veteran superstar to add the leadership the team needs, and ironically one that has been mentioned is tonight’s sitting opponent Mr. Kawhi Leonard. Could it be that the Sixers make a play to put an established veteran star with Simmons and Embiid? It is well worth watching as the trade deadline approaches in mid-February.
