The outbreak of COVID-19 may have put the NBA season on hold, but it does give everybody an opportunity to kind of breathe and look into the history of a team.
Continuing our look into the history of the Philadelphia 76ers, we focus on a big matchup in Milwaukee. The Sixers, fully healthy, went into Milwaukee to take on Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks and it did not disappoint. The future league MVP and Joel Embiid delivered a big performance and it was a great performance on both sides.
March 17, 2019
The Sixers were still trying to find their footing. They had just acquired Tobias Harris from the Los Angeles Clippers and they were trying to figure out how things look with Jimmy Butler and Harris working together next to Embiid, Ben Simmons, and JJ Redick.
A matchup with the Bucks brought the best out of the group as Embiid dropped 40 points on 15-for-31 shooting with 15 rebounds and six assists. He did take 13 3-pointers, making four of them, so that was a bit of an eyesore, but Butler added 27 points as they were able to combat a career-high 52 points from Antetokounmpo. The Sixers were able to win it 130-125 at Fiserv Forum.
It was an impressive win for Philadelphia knocking off a Bucks team that entered with the best record in the NBA. The Sixers needed a big win to get their footing and their confidence and it was a huge win for them.
Embiid told reporters postgame:
They are the best team in the NBA right now, as far as record goes. No. 1 in our conference. I felt like we had to make a statement. We had to get this win.
Both of these teams would go on to make the playoffs, but they both fell victim to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors. Philadelphia, of course, fell to Toronto in Game 7 on the miracle shot by Kawhi Leonard while Milwaukee let a 2-0 lead slip away in the Eastern Conference Finals and falling to Toronto 4-2.
The hope for the 2019-20 season is that both teams will be able to match up in the playoffs, but with the season in jeopardy due to coronavirus, that will have to remain a hypothetical situation for the moment. The Bucks have taken two of the first three contests on the season with the two wins coming in Milwaukee. [lawrence-related id=27703,27699,27688]