By: Kylan Watson

The Philadelphia 76ers were riding high after beating the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night. They faced a game Los Angeles Clippers squad that was looking to stop their momentum. Philly used a second quarter offensive explosion to beat the Clippers 122-97.

The Sixers did not start the game off well, they missed their first few shots. Los Angeles took full advantage of the early game power outage and got out to an early lead. Philly weathered the early storm and battled back to retake the lead. James Harden (29-points and 15-rebounds) and Joel Embiid (27-points and 10-rebounds) led them. They combined for 56 of the Sixers 122-points. Both got whatever they wanted from the field. They were able to take full advantage of the fact the Clippers had no one on their roster who could stop them. Harden had one of his better games as a Sixer. He scored 25 of his 29-points in the second quarter, he was the main engine behind Philly’s offensive explosion in that quarter. He hit four three-pointers. If Harden can take his performance in this game and build on it the Sixers will be a dangerous team in the playoffs.

Despite the offensive explosion from Harden and Embiid. The Clippers continued to battle throughout this game. Although after the first quarter they experienced a power outage thanks to Philly turning up the pressure on the defensive end. They did take full advantage of the Sixers giving them any space to put a shot up. Amir Coffey led them he scored 21-points. He took full advantage of Philly giving him space to put a shot up and made them pay for not getting back on defense. The Sixers were able to put the clamps on the rest of his teammates and were able to pull-away from LA.

Philly will now prepare for a Sunday night prime-time match-up with the Phoenix Suns. They are the number one team in the league, and this will be a big test for the Sixers. They will need another balanced scoring night to keep-up with the high-powered offense of the Suns. Additionally, they will need another great perimeter defensive performance. If they want to stop Devin Booker and Chris Paul and get their 47^th win of the season.