The Sixers will welcome the defending Western Conference champions to Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Here are the essentials for their game against the Suns:
- When: 7 p.m. ET with Sixers Pregame Live at 6:15 p.m.
- Where: Wells Fargo Center
- Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the MyTeams app
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And here are storylines to watch:
Facing a special Suns team
Phoenix has won 13 of its last 14 games, but it wouldn’t be difficult to find similar stretches throughout this season. The Suns’ 43-10 mark is the NBA’s best.
Led by head coach Monty Williams, a Sixers assistant for the 2018-19 season, they’ve been especially great late in close games. Per NBA.com/Stats, Phoenix is 21-3 with a plus-43.5 net rating in “clutch” situations, which are games with a point differential of five or under with less than five minutes remaining. Chris Paul, an All-Star point guard at 36 years old, has plenty to do with that clutch success.
NBA
The Sixers do already have a home win over the league’s only other team with over 40 wins, the Warriors. They’ll have a rest advantage with the Suns finishing a back-to-back after beating the Bulls on Monday.
‘A very fun time of the year’
Asked about his approach ahead of the trade deadline, Andre Drummond paused as he found the right words to describe a uniquely chaotic period of the NBA calendar.
“The trade deadline, I always find it a very fun time of the year, because a lot of stuff goes on during that time,” Drummond said Tuesday following the Sixers’ shootaround. “I just tell the young guys, ‘Control what you can control.’ You can’t control what the outcome of the trade deadline is. You just have to come to work every day, do your role and whatever happens, happens. Stay prepared.”
Drummond was dealt from the Pistons to the Cavs at the 2020 deadline. He’s since signed with the Lakers and Sixers.
“The trade deadline for me every year, being a guy who was the highest-paid player on the team, just having that thought at the back of your head: I could be traded at any time,” he said. “It’s definitely nerve-wracking, but it’s the way the business is. It’s the way it goes. When it’s your time, it’s your time.”
Though part of a player's job is focusing on the games amid the rumors and uncertainty, fans’ attention tends to shift elsewhere in the days immediately before the deadline. Everyone involved will have clarity Thursday afternoon.
How do you stop Phoenix?
The Suns lack obvious weaknesses. Per Cleaning the Glass, which excludes garbage time, the team ranks second in offensive rating and third in defensive rating.
Guarding the double-All-Star backcourt of Paul and Devin Booker stands out as a particularly stiff challenge. Booker, who’s coming off of a 38-point game against the Bulls, has averaged 28.8 points in 12 career matchups with the Sixers, shooting 45.9 percent from three-point range. Making Booker work to get shots off and bothering Paul with varied pick-and-roll coverages is far, far easier said than done.
If Matisse Thybulle is available, the Sixers’ task will look a bit more manageable. Thybulle was listed as questionable with right shoulder soreness. Shake Milton (back contusion) is still out.
Phoenix’s Landry Shamet, Dario Saric, Cameron Payne, Abdel Nader and Frank Kaminsky are out with injuries.