By: Kylan Watson

After falling to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the surging Los Angeles Clippers for the first time in the 2023-24 Regular season. Both teams traded blows throughout this game, but the Sixers were able to use a fourth quarter explosion to beat the Clippers 121-107.

The Sixers started this game off hot and they finally found their offensive rhythm and scored 63 points by half-time. The trio of Tyrese Maxey (24 points and made three/six three-pointers), Tobias Harris (24 points), and Cam Payne (23 points and made five/10 three-pointers in the contest) combined for 71 of Philly’s 121 points. Harris in particular played his best game of the season in this game. He accepted the challenge early and scored 19 of his 24 points by half-time, an aggressive Harris is great for Philly because of the amount of defensive attention he draws. This creates easier opportunities for his teammates and when they are able to make their shots, it adds another dimension to the Sixers offense. The way Philly played on both sides of the ball tonight was too much for the Clippers to overcome. They had a response every time LA would try to mount a comeback. With 11 games remaining in the season, if the Sixers can play like they played this afternoon they can rocket up the standings in the loaded Eastern Conference and avoid the 2024 Play-In Tournament.

On Tobias Harris’ play as of late, “The last two games, he’s been outstanding. He’s feeling better, he’s feeling more healthy, he’s got some bounce,” said Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach Nick Nurse.

Despite Philly’s scoring prowess throughout this contest, the Clippers weathered the storm and fought their way back into it. They tied the game midway through the third quarter and erased The Sixers nine-point lead. The duo of Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell combined for 40 of LA’s 107 points. Both of them took full advantage of Philly’s defensive mistakes and found the bottom of the net. They kept the Clippers offense afloat every time Philly started to pull away. The Sixers were able to turn the defensive pressure up on the Clippers and forced them into some bad turnovers, which allowed them to get easy buckets on the fast break. That was enough to stifle Los Angeles’ comeback attempt and Tyrese Maxey made a three-pointer off of a Clippers turnover to seal this game for Philly.

The Sixers will now prepare for tomorrow night’s game against the Sacramento Kings, another team fighting to stay out of the Play-In Tournament. Philly will have to stay attached to their man if they want to stop De’Aaron Fox and the rest of the Kings explosive offense. They cannot allow them to get multiple opportunities to find the bottom of the bucket, because they will make them pay for any additional looks at the basket. Additionally, the Sixers will need to cash in on the high-percentage shots created off of their ball movement like they did this afternoon. If they can implement these things into their gameplan for tomorrow night they can get their 40^th victory of the season.