Warriors visit Philadelphia Monday having won four of their last five games, while the 76ers are on a four-game winning streak. Steph Curry is averaging just under 40 points in the last 10 games.
After a weekend off, the 39-17 Sixers are back in action Monday night.
Here are the essentials for their game vs. the 28-29 Warriors:
- When: 7:30 p.m. ET
- Where: Wells Fargo Center
- Broadcast: ESPN
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And here are three storylines to watch:
Hill one of five questionable Sixers
At 8:30 p.m. ET Sunday night, four Sixers were listed as questionable:
- George Hill (right thumb surgery)
- Tobias Harris (right knee soreness)
- Seth Curry (left hip flexor tightness)
- Dwight Howard (left knee soreness)
Ben Simmons (illness) was added to that list on the 1:30 p.m. ET Monday injury report.
NBA
Hill hasn’t played in a game since Jan. 24. He had surgery on Feb. 4 to address a mallet injury in his right thumb. Though the Sixers have never placed a firm timeline on when he’ll debut for the team, he’s evidently close.
“No timeline, but I think sooner than later,” head coach Doc Rivers said Friday. “He had a good workout yesterday — a live workout. I think that may have been his first. Today he was on the floor but not live, and tomorrow he’ll be able to do a little bit more. Then we have a couple days that we can do some work. So we’ll see. I would say sometime next week would be, I guess, optimistic. But I’m optimistic, so I’m going to go with that.”
Hill said on April 8 that he was making “tremendous progress” with his rehab, and that he’d be back “sooner than expected.”
Harris, Howard and Curry all missed the Sixers’ win Friday night over the Clippers.
In addition to Klay Thompson and James Wiseman, who are sidelined with long-term injuries, Golden State will be without Eric Paschall (left hip flexor strain) and Juan Toscano-Anderson (concussion protocol).
Kelly Oubre and Stephen Curry are questionable with left wrist soreness and left ankle soreness, respectively. Since returning from a tailbone injury on March 29, Curry has averaged 39.1 points on 54.6/48.6/90.1 percent shooting splits.
Tony Bradley won’t be the star this time
With Joel Embiid out, Tony Bradley was tremendous against Wiseman in the Sixers’ March 23 win over the Warriors, posting 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting, 11 rebounds, two steals and two blocks. That ended up being his final game with the Sixers as he soon departed for Oklahoma City in the Hill trade.
Neither Bradley nor Wiseman will feature Monday night, of course, and it does not appear that Golden State is well-equipped to defend Embiid.
Kevon Looney has started at center in the four games since Wiseman’s right meniscus tear. Expect Embiid to face regular double teams, and for the Warriors to see if their small-ball lineups can outscore the Sixers. Lineups with Draymond Green at center have a stellar 121.8 offensive rating this season, per Cleaning the Glass.
A chance to gain more ground
Bam Adebayo nailed a buzzer-beating jumper against the Nets on Sunday afternoon, dropping Brooklyn to 38-19.
A Sixers win would give them a two-game lead over the Nets. They also own the tiebreaker between the teams after securing the regular-season series last week.
According to Tankathon, the Nets have the 11th-hardest remaining strength of schedule, while the Sixers have the third-easiest. The team’s schedule will look even better once it wraps up a mini-series in Milwaukee on Thursday and Saturday.
