By: Kylan Watson

After beating the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the Golden State Warriors in the front end of their sixth back-to-back of the season. Both teams traded blows in this game, but the Sixers were able to win this game thanks to a game winning put back attempt by VJ Edgecombe that sealed a 99-98 victory.

The Sixers once again found their offensive rhythm early in the contest, Joel Embiid (12 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in this game) found his rhythm early and got the scoring started for them. Having him on the floor changes the dynamic on both sides of the floor for Philly, the offense and defense looked a lot better when their defensive anchor is on the floor. His gravity created more space and room for Tyrese Maxey to attack, and he took full advantage of it scoring 35 points in this game his ninth straight 35-point performance of the season.

Thanks to the scoring explosion from Maxey and Embiid the Sixers were up by 21 points at half-time and lost their lead in the fourth quarter. Philly just could not find their offense in the late stages of the third quarter and throughout the majority of the fourth quarter. Golden State took full advantage of the power outage Pat Spencer (16 points), Buddy Hield (14 points), De’Anthony Melton (14 points), and Moses Moody (14 points) combined for 58 of the Warriors 98 points and were able to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. They turned up the defensive pressure and forced Philly into some uncharacteristic turnovers. Credit to them they weathered the Sixers offensive storm and without Jimmy Butler and Stephen Curry were able to take Philly to the limit and nearly won this game.

When the Sixers needed it the most, they locked down Golden State and did not allow them to score during their last four possessions of this game. VJ Edgecombe produced a pivotal steal after a successful Philly challenge. That paved the way for the biggest bucket of his career as Maxey missed a fadeaway attempt and the ball found Edgecombe for the game winning tip-in with 00.9 seconds left in the game. Also, Maxey sprinted to the other end of the court to erase a lay-up attempt by Melton to seal the game for the Sixers and survive their worse second-half performance of the season so far.

A win is a win, but the Sixers will have to figure out these non-Maxey minutes and will need to keep Paul George (Missed this game tonight) or Embiid available during that time to keep that portion of the game competitive. Another thing that will need to change for the Sixers is taking Edgecombe off the ball and putting the ball in Jared McCain’s hand as the point guard when Maxey is resting. They need to take full advantage of his ability to pass and create high percentage scoring opportunities for his teammates. These changes will help Philly survive that stretch of the game which will happen at least two- three times a game.

Philly will now prepare to face the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow night and although Giannis Antetokounmpo will not be available because of a calf strain. Milwaukee is still a team that will give the Sixers trouble if they give them opportunities to succeed. The Sixers will need to stay connected to their man, limit their turnovers, and use their ball movement to create and cash in on the high-percentage scoring opportunities they create. Implementing these things into their game plan for Friday night will put them in great position to win their 13^th game of the season.