I wrote yesterday about how this lightly populated portion of the schedule could be beneficial for Philadelphia, and lo and behold, the Sixers have a nearly clean injury report for tomorrow night’s game against the Wizards in Washington, DC.
De’Anthony Melton is the only player listed, as some sort of illness continues to make its way through the Sixers locker room like a children’s day care. However, Melton’s probable status makes its likely Philadelphia will have NO players unavailable due to injury or illness tomorrow.
The Sixers have only had what we’ll call their ‘top six’ (Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, Tobias Harris, Nic Batum, and Kelly Oubre Jr.) available for three games thus far this season. They won all three of those contests, defeating Washington, Boston, and Detroit. Currently, Philadelphia is tied with the Knicks at 12-7 for 4th place in the Eastern Conference, 2.5 games back of the Boston Celtics, with Orlando and Milwaukee in-between. With seven straight games against below-.500 teams (some very below-.500) coming up, this is a terrific opportunity for the Sixers to rack up some victories and put pressure on the top of the East.
Moments like this are fleeting in a long and grueling NBA season, particularly for a Sixers franchise that has experienced more than its fair share of bad injury luck over the years. Let’s just hope the guys weren’t stingy with the hand sanitizer on the train ride down to the nation’s capital this afternoon.
