PHILADELPHIA — So much for Wednesday night’s game serving as a barometer to see if the 76ers are legitimate NBA championship contenders.
All it basically determined was that the Sixers can hold off Kyrie Irving and a bunch of Brooklyn Nets role players. That’s the team they defeated, 123-117, in a much-anticipated Eastern Conference first-place showdown.
The Sixers (38-17) have sole possession of first place with 17 games remaining. This victory also enabled them to win two of this season’s three meetings against the Nets (37-18). As a result, the Sixers hold the tiebreaker and will get the higher playoff seed if the teams finish with the same record.
Joel Embiid, once again, put up MVP numbers.
The Sixers center finished with 39 points, 13 rebounds and one block in just 28 minutes, 37 seconds. Tobias Harris added 26 points and two blocks, while Ben Simmons had 17 points, nine assists and three steals. Irving paced Brooklyn with 37 points and nine assists, even though the Nets subbed him out for good early in the fourth quarter.
Brooklyn gave the Sixers a scare with him on the bench.
The Nets battled back from a 21-point, fourth-quarter deficit to to pull within three points (118-115) on a pair of foul shots by former 76ers guard Landry Shamet with 1 minute, 16 seconds left.
Embiid and Danny Green both hit pair of foul shots to push the lead back to seven points (122-117). Then after a Nets basket, Simmons made a free throw and the Sixers held on for their six-point victory.
But the game still didn’t have the overall star power that was expected weeks ago.
That’s because the Nets had a Who’s Who of standout players sidelined: Kevin Durant (left hamstring management), James Harden (right hamstring strain), LaMarcus Aldridge (illness), Blake Griffin (left knee management), Chris Chiozza (fractured right hand), Tyler Johnson (right knee soreness) and Spencer Dinwiddle (partially torn ACL in right knee).
Dinwiddle is out for the rest season. Chiozza is out until the postseason. Johnson is expected to be out until April 23. Harden and Aldridge could return Friday against the Charlotte Hornets.
But Durant, who worked out before the game, and Griffin basically just had the night off.
The thing is Harden, Durant, and Irving are Brooklyn’s big three, while Aldridge and Griffin were marquee acquisitions in the buyout market.
Durant missed all three contests against the Sixers. Irving missed the first two. Harden only faced the Sixers once since being acquired from the Houston Rockets in a four-team trade on Jan. 13. This marked the first time Brooklyn faced the Sixers since Aldridge and Griffin signed with the team.
Green acknowledged that its “very tough” to see how the Sixers match up against Nets with their standouts not playing.
“It might be a strategic thing for them,” said Green, who spent eight of 13 NBA seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. “I know in San Antonio some games we didn’t play everybody so that teams don’t know how to guard us, how to play us.
“I just think for them, it’s unfortunate that they had some injuries and some guys with some family issues. So that [stinks]. But they are a tough matchup ... if they have everybody or nobody. They have guys that can play. But like I said, for the future ... we don’t know how, if we meet them in the playoffs, how we match up.”
Brooklyn coach Steve Nash downplayed the fact that his squad might have a tactical advantage down the road by not showing what they do with their standout players.
“I think that’s one of the things you can overthink it, you know, how can we get an advantage?” he said. “So much will change and we’ll both be in a different place if we’re fortunate to be in the playoffs”
Nash said the Nets didn’t think about not showing their hand to the Sixers that deeply. He said stuff like backfires most of the time.
“So for us, James wasn’t going to play,” he said. “We were sure about Chi. LaMarcus has been out. We don’t have a full squad anyways. So it wasn’t strategic. It was this was the availability we had.
“That’s simply what happened.”
Despite that, this was more competitive than expected.
Irving had 23 points and seven of his assists the first half. Due to that, the Sixers were clinging to a 65-58 lead at the break despite Embiid having 21 points and six rebounds, while Harris added 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting through two quarters.
