By: Kylan Watson

After capping off their longest road trip of the season with a win in Utah on Thursday night, the Philadelphia 76ers started their home stand against the hungry Brooklyn Nets. One of the toughest things in the NBA for every team is the first home game after a tough road trip and the Sixers proved that to be true as they could not hit anything throughout the majority of this contest. Meanwhile, the Nets had no trouble finding the bottom of the net and blew Philly off their home-floor beating them 136-121.

The Sixers are still reeling from an injury bug and flu strain that continues to run through their locker room, and they did not get any sympathy from the young Brooklyn Nets. They started out hot hitting their first few shots from the field and putting Philly on their heels early in this game. Cam Thomas played like he had a point to prove in this game scoring 40-points and 33 of those points were scored in the third quarter helping his team put this contest away. Every time the Sixers would try to make a run in this game he would hit a back breaking basket to stop any positive momentum they had which was not much in this contest. The Nets have a lot of young athletic pieces they may not be in Brooklyn next week because of the trade deadline and Thomas is one of the most valuable pieces they have. He proved his value with games like tonight, when he is in his offensive bag he can shoot an opposing team right out of this game and it does not matter if that team is healthy or not. If he stays in Brooklyn the Nets have a potential face of the franchise currently on their roster that they can build around.

Despite the Thomas offensive explosion the Sixers continued to fight in this game at one point cutting a 23-point lead to 16 by half-time because of defensive pressure. One of the few positive things that happened in this game was the Sixers were able to get Brooklyn to turn the ball over but they were down by too many points to ever seriously threaten the Nets in this game. The Sixers just need to get healthy and the All-Star break being on the horizon could not come at a better time for them. However, before that is the trade deadline and the Sixers have to get a fourth scorer and another defensive piece in there to help Maxey and Harris right the ship until Joel Embiid can return. For the Sixers everything comes down to doing all they can to stay in a top four spot in the Eastern Conference to ensure that they can at least have a better road to the finals when the playoffs start than being a play-in team. Once the Sixers finally get some rest and get healthy they are one of the deepest teams in the association. This will be a pivotal time for both Maxey and Harris to prove that they are worthy of the huge extensions their agents will be seeking in the offseason from the Sixers. Its all on them to be the featured players of one of the most dynamic offenses in the NBA and get their teammates involved as well. If they can both continue to put the ball in the hoop and continue to create high percentage shot opportunities for their teammates Philly should be able to survive this stretch without Joel Embiid.

This task does not get any easier as Philly will now face the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, who have one of the best scoring backcourts in the league with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving coming to town. Both of those players will get their points, but the Sixers will need to make sure that they do all they can on the defensive end to limit their teammates and put the scoring burden on Doncic and Irving. Additionally, the Sixers will need to make the high percentage shots their ball movement creates. They did not do it in tonight’s contest and some of that can be blamed on tired legs but eventually these shots need to fall for Philly to compete with their opponents. If they can implement this gameplan they can get their 31^st victory of the season on Monday Night.