By: Kylan Watson

With the All-Star break rapidly approaching the Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers faced off to see who could maintain their dominant stretch heading into All-Star weekend. The Sixers dominated the Cavaliers with their ball movement, they were able to find the holes in their defense and got out to a huge lead over them by half-time. They did not look back throughout the rest of the game as they were able to beat them 118-112.

The Sixers jumped on the Cavs from the opening tip-off, they were able to use their ball movement to find high-percentage shots and everybody ate off of it. They were making shots from the paint, perimeter, and from the three-point line. Before the Cavaliers could even get settled into the game they were down by double-digits and the lead increased to 22-points by half-time. This was a milestone night for Joel Embiid who scored 29-points, grabbed 14-rebounds, and had five-assists. After he scored his first five-points in the contest he became the fastest 76er to reach 10,000 career points. He got whatever he wanted from the field and Cleveland’s defenders were powerless to stop him, Embiid was able to get his man in foul trouble and create a lot of opportunities for his teammates who cashed in on most of them. When the Sixers offense is rolling like it was tonight, they are a hard team to stop even for a top three defensive unit like the Cavaliers.

Despite everything that was working against them tonight, the Cavs deserved all of the credit because they continued to fight back and were able to get back into the game. The trio of Donovan Mitchell (33-points), Darius Garland (27-points), and Evan Mobley (23-points) led them they combined for 83 of the Cavs 112-points. Both of them gave the Sixers fits tonight, despite playing pretty good defense on them. They were able to make very difficult shots look easy as they found the bottom of the net.  The Sixers did a good job defensively tonight of making sure those two were the only players that went off in the contest. Without help the Sixers were able to maintain their lead and keep one of the hottest teams in the league at bay.

The Sixers snapped the Cavs eight-game winning streak and are now headed to the All-Star break as one of the hottest teams in the league. They found themselves after a slow start and as they head into the second half of the season, they will have one of the hardest remaining schedules in the league. It will be important for them to maintain their ball movement and defensive aggressiveness if they want to continue being a top three seed in the loaded Eastern Conference.