By: Kylan Watson

After beating the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night, the Philadelphia 76ers returned to Philly to face the Los Angeles Lakers tonight. Which is the beginning of a six-game home stand for Philly. The Sixers used a second quarter scoring explosion to beat the Lakers 118-104. With the win they extend their win streak to three games and continue to build momentum heading into the All-Star Break.

The Sixers once again found their offensive rhythm early in this contest, they were able to cash in on their high-percentage shooting opportunities created by their ball movement. That allowed them to erase an early lead by the Lakers and never look back in this contest. Tyrese Maxey once again had a dominant showing in this contest, over the last few games he has really started to play within the flow of the offense, and it has led to wins for the Sixers. He scored 43 points and made 4/11 of his three-point attempts in this contest.

Maxey ‘s scoring dominance was on display in this contest as it did not matter if the Lakers had one defender on him or sent multiple, he was able to find the bottom of the basket. When Maxey is finding his offensive rhythm  as easy as he was tonight, his teammates should just let him cook and get out of the way. There are not many teams  who can deal with him when he is scoring like he was in tonight’s contest, and the Lakers certainly had no answers for him in this game.

Their only hope was getting the ball out of his hands and when that did happen the Sixers passed the ball around and converted a high-percentage shooting opportunity to still put points on the board. Kelly Oubre Jr. was a beneficiary of this style of play tonight he once again scored at least 20 points for the fourth straight contest and has continued his dominant January. Outside of Paul George during this month he has been the second-best player on Philly’s roster and has been a menace on both sides of the ball.

Oubre Jr. has created multiple scoring opportunities for the Sixers by forcing multiple turnovers with his aggressive defensive play. Those types of plays have helped the Sixers win the last three games and can continue to keep Oubre Jr. in the rotation as Philly starts to get healthy over the next few weeks. Philly needs more players that have that dog in them and Oubre Jr. certainly is a key role player for the Sixers who certainly need more tough-minded players.

The Lakers, for their part despite having played last night, continued to fight in this contest. Despite the scoring explosion from the Sixers, they were able to cut the Sixers 18-point lead to 12 points mid-way through the third quarter thanks to LeBron James. He scored 30 points in the contest and imposed his will on this game. The Sixers were able to wall off the paint and force him to take tougher jump shots which he did not make. That slowed LA’s offense down and allowed the Sixers to pull away in this contest.

The Sixers will now prepare to play the Sacramento Kings tomorrow night, another tough team that the Sixers just lost to a few weeks ago. The Sixers will need to limit them to one possession, limit their turnovers, and cash in on the high-percentage shooting opportunities created off their ball movement.

Implementing these things into their game plan should put them in a great position to win their 19^th game of the season and extend their win streak to four games.