The Philadelphia 76ers were expected to be among the top teams in the NBA.
The Oklahoma City Thunder were expected to make a jump after earning a play-in berth last season.
Saturday in Oklahoma City, the steady 76ers and surprising Thunder will face off in a matchup of two of the NBA’s top teams early.
The game would be a matchup of one of the top established big men in the league — reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid of Philadelphia — and one of the up-and-coming 7-footers in Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren.
Embiid missed Wednesday’s loss at Minnesota with left hip soreness but made the trip to Oklahoma City. It was the first game Embiid has missed this season.
The Thunder come into the game on a six-game winning streak, their longest since the 2018-19 season.
The team is dealing with an NBA investigation into allegations that guard Josh Giddey had an inappropriate relationship with an underage girl. Giddey, 21, said Friday that he had no comment.
Head coach Mark Daigneault called the issue a “personal matter” and declined further comment as well.
Oklahoma City’s 11-4 start is its best after 15 games since the 2013-14 season.
The 76ers are near the league’s leaders in rebounding, averaging 45.9 per game, while the Thunder are near the bottom at 41.5 per game.
Daigneault said the rebounding difficulties aren’t an indictment of his team’s toughness.
“We really don’t care what anyone else thinks of us,” Daigneault said. “… There’s a mental toughness to the team.”
During the winning streak, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 32.5 points and 6.3 assists, and shooting 56.7 percent from the field.
Since an eight-game winning streak early on, the 76ers have lost four of their past six, including dropping the past two.
In the 122-99 loss to the Timberwolves on Wednesday, Philadelphia shot a season-low 21.9 percent on 3-pointers, going just 7 of 32 from beyond the arc.
The Thunder have been one of the NBA’s better teams this season at defending the 3-point line, as opponents are shooting just 34.1 percent on threes against Oklahoma City.
“You’re gonna have to make a better percentage of those because you’re going to have to shoot over the top of them from distance,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said.
Without Embiid, Paul Reed played a season-high 26 minutes in Wednesday’s loss, though Marcus Morris started.
“I just wanted to give us a chance to have five guys on the floor to space the floor, give us good spacing,” Nurse said of his decision to start Morris instead of Reed.
Six of Reed’s season-high nine rebounds came on the offensive end.
The 76ers are near the top of the league at getting to the free-throw line, attempting 27.4 free throws per game so far.
Philadelphia is shooting 85.9 percent from the line. The only team better so far is Oklahoma City, which is shooting 86.2 percent from the stripe.
The Thunder will be without Jalen Williams for the third consecutive game. Williams suffered a hip strain late in the Thunder’s win at Golden State on Nov. 18.
Saturday’s game is the first of two meetings between the teams this season and will meet again on April 2. They split their two games last season.
–Field Level Media