Philadelphia 76ers vs Denver Nuggets
When: 3/30/2021 9:00 PM
Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO

TV: 9:00 PM
LINE: -175
PREDICTION: Philadephia 76ers, Denver Nuggets

Oddsmakers currently have Denver Nuggets listed as 4 point favorites versus the Philadelphia 76ers while the game’s total is sitting at 221.

After one game with Aaron Gordon in the mix, it looks like the Denver Nuggets made a smart move in acquiring the young forward.

The second test comes Tuesday night when Denver hosts the Philadelphia 76ers in a matchup of teams with title aspirations.

The Nuggets increased their chances when they acquired Gordon from Orlando last week, bolstering their frontcourt and adding another scoring option as well as a versatile defender. Gordon made his Denver debut Sunday night in a win over Atlanta and he came away impressed with his new squad.

“I see no limits for this team. It looks like we have all the pieces for this team, we have depth,” Gordon said after scoring 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting in 21 minutes. “We’re covered in a lot of different spots. As long as we’re working together there’s no stopping us.”

The Nuggets expect there to be some growing pains as Gordon becomes integrated into the system, but they also know there isn’t much time left in the regular season. Denver has only 26 games left, and in the tight Western Conference and a constant shifting of positioning, time is not a luxury.

“Our guys understand with (26) games to go, you look at the standings, it’s going to be a really tight race and every game counts, but It’s not going to happen overnight,” coach Michael Malone said. “Aaron Gordon is not going to fit in seamlessly tonight and be like, ‘yep, we got this,’ it’s going to take a little bit of time and we understand that.”

The Nuggets face a Philadelphia team that sits atop the Eastern Conference but with little margin for error. The Sixers are 10-2 in March but are in a stride-for-stride race with Brooklyn, which was 9-2 in the month heading into Monday night’s game with league-worst Minnesota.

Philadelphia players are well aware of the standings.

“I look at the standings, I know where we are, I know the race,” Tobias Harris said. “I’d be lying to you if I said I don’t look at the standings. I look at the standings every day; it is just something that I do.”

Being locked in such a tight battle with the Nets doesn’t bother Harris.

“I look at the standings and say, ‘We need a win,'” he said. “If it was any different, I would look at it the same exact way.”

The Sixers have stayed atop the Eastern Conference despite not having Joel Embiid for most of the month. Embiid was having an MVP-caliber season before a bone bruise in his left knee has sidelined him for the past eight games. He’s also likely to miss Tuesday’s game, too.

They had a four-game winning streak snapped Saturday night at the Los Angeles Clippers, the fourth of a six-game road trip that has touched down in New York (Knicks), the Bay Area (Warriors), Los Angeles (Lakers and Clippers), Denver and finishes in Cleveland on Thursday night.

Denver, meanwhile, is settling in for plenty of home games. Sunday’s win over the Hawks was the start of having seven of eight at home, with only a one-game trip to Los Angeles to face the Clippers in the next two weeks.

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Charlotte Hornets vs Philadelphia 76ers
When: 7:00 PM  ET, Friday, January 13, 2017
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Charlotte), CSN Philadelphia
PREDICTION: Hornets 103, 76ers 99

PHILADELPHIA — The struggling Charlotte Hornets find themselves in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.

The surging Philadelphia 76ers, who host the Hornets on Friday, can only hope to be there at some point as well.

“Playoff time, baby,” rookie center Joel Embiid joked after the Sixers beat the New York Knicks 98-97 Wednesday night on a buzzer-beating jumper by guard T.J. McConnell.

The Sixers, one of the NBA’s worst teams the past four years, won four of their past five games to improve to 11-25. They have already exceeded their victory total for all of last season.

“We’ve just got to take it step by step, game by game,” Embiid said. “We’ve just got to get better every game, try to win every game.”

Embiid is a big reason for the team’s improvement. He leads the 76ers, as well as all NBA rookies, in scoring (19.4 points per game), rebounding (7.5 per game) and blocked shots (2.0 per game) despite playing an average of just 25.1 minutes. The team is limiting his action because Embiid, the third overall pick in the 2014 draft, missed two seasons after undergoing a pair of foot surgeries.

He also has rested periodically, and the Sixers plan to hold him out of Saturday’s game in Washington. He is expected to play Friday, despite sustaining a slight sprain of his left ankle late in the first half Wednesday against New York.

He returned and finished with 21 points and a career-high 14 rebounds as the Sixers erased a 10-point deficit in the final 2:29.

“The last couple games we’ve been finishing,” Embiid said, “so it gives us a lot of confidence.”

Embiid, who has seven double-doubles this season, exceeded the 20-point mark in each of his past seven games. According to the team’s official website, that is the longest such string by any Philadelphia player since Brett Brown became the coach in 2014.

The Hornets (20-19) have lost the first three games on a five-game road trip and five of six in all. Most recently, they fell 121-114 at Houston on Tuesday, when Rockets guard James Harden scored 40 points in a triple-double. Kemba Walker scored a team-high 25 points for the Hornets, adding 10 assists and six rebounds.

Charlotte hopes to have forward Nic Batum back on Friday. He missed the previous two games with a hyperextended right knee but practiced Thursday.

“I can’t say enough about how much this team needs Nic Batum,” power forward Marvin Williams told the Charlotte Observer. “Not only offensively what he brings to the table for himself and the rest of us, but defensively as well. He’s such a smart player, such a great player, on both ends of the floor.

“When you (lose) a guy like that, who does so many things, the team does struggle a little bit in his absence. If he’s back out there, it will make a huge difference.”

The Hornets beat the Sixers 109-93 on Nov. 2, but Embiid did not play.

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New York Knicks vs Philadelphia 76ers
When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG (New York), CSN Philadelphia
PREDICTION: 76ers 103, Knicks 101

New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose, inexplicably absent from his team’s home loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night, returned to the Knicks’ practice facility on Tuesday.

Still to be determined is whether he will play Wednesday when the Knicks (17-21) face the Philadelphia 76ers (10-25) on the road.

Rose did not show up for the 110-96 loss to the Pelicans, and did not inform his teammates or Knicks officials that he would be absent. Multiple media outlets reported that team officials were unable to reach him by phone, and ESPN.com, citing unnamed sources, reported that Knicks representatives grew so concerned they went looking for him at his apartment.

The same outlet later reported that he went to Chicago to deal with a family situation, and that he returned for Tuesday’s practice and met with general manager Steve Mills. The team announced he was fined and Rose met with reporters, saying “it was a family issue when quizzed about his absence.

Rose, a three-time All-Star and the 2011 NBA MVP while playing for the Chicago Bulls, was acquired in an offseason trade. He is averaging 17.3 points and 4.5 assists per game, but Yahoo Sports reported that Rose has grown increasingly frustrated with his role. First-year coach Jeff Hornacek has benched him in the fourth quarter of the last two games in favor of undrafted rookie Ron Baker.

Overall, the Knicks have lost eight of nine. Veteran forward Carmelo Anthony is once again the team’s leading scorer (21.9), but he was ejected in the third quarter of Monday’s game for arguing with referee Danny Crawford.

Reserve forward Kyle O’Quinn was ejected soon after that for a flagrant 2 foul on New Orleans star Anthony Davis, who collected 40 points and 18 rebounds in the game.

The Sixers have won three of four, most recently beating the Brooklyn Nets 106-95 on Sunday to match their victory total for all of last season. Rookie center Joel Embiid led the way with 20 points, and afterward said he has high hopes for the season.

“We are seven or eight games out of the playoffs, so we have a chance,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We are learning. We are coming together. We are learning how to play with each other. We are just great now.”

Philadelphia is 13th in the East, and 7 1/2 games out of the eighth and final playoff spot, but Embiid has established himself as the clear frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year award. He leads all first-year players, as well as his team, in scoring (19.4), rebounding (7.3) and blocked shots (2.4), while averaging just 25 minutes a game.

The team is restricting him to 28 minutes a night after Embiid, the third pick in the 2014 draft, missed two seasons following a pair of foot surgeries.

Sixers coach Brett Brown has struggled to find minutes for Embiid and two other highly drafted centers, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, but the last two games Brown has elected not to use Okafor at all.

Philadelphia signed rookie guard Chasson Randle to a 10-day contract on Tuesday. Randle, a Stanford product, averaged 21 points a game in 19 appearances for the Westchester Knicks of the NBA Development League. He began the season in the Czech Republic.

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Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics
When: 7:30 PM ET, Friday, January 6, 2017
Where: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, CSN Philadelphia, CSN New England (Boston)
PREDICTION: Celtics 114, 76ers 101

BOSTON — Having dealt with their first off-court issue of the season, the Celtics were preparing to deal with Philadelphia big man Joel Embiid on the court when the teams meet at TD Garden Friday night.

Embiid, whose career has been stalled by physical woes, has been on fire lately, but missed Thursday’s practice with a flu bug. He joins teammate Robert Covington (back contusion) as questionable for the game.

The Sixers (9-24, one game ahead of the Brooklyn Nets in the battle for the worst record in the league) have won two straight for the third time this season and seek their first three-game winning streak Friday.

Embiid, who did travel with the team to Boston, has averaged 24 points, seven rebounds, 2.5 blocked shots and four assists in the two games but has scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds per game in his last six games.

The Celtics have a slight roster issue as well, as backup center Tyler Zeller missed Tuesday night’s win over the Utah Jazz with a sinus infection, and he still wasn’t at practice Thursday.

But the news out of the Celtics centered on Jae Crowder, who went on a Twitter rant after Tuesday’s game because the home crowd was cheering for Utah’s Gordon Hayward, a potential free agent this summer.

The pair matched up Tuesday and Crowder got the better of it in a Celtics win.

Crowder deleted most of what he said, which included, in caps, “I HEARD THE CHEERING 1/8FOR HAYWARD 3/8 BEFORE THE GAME. I DIDN’T LIKE IT THAT AT ALL. I THINK IT WAS A SIGN OF DISREPECT TO ME FROM THE FANS. THAT SPARKED A LITTLE FIRE IN ME.”

Thursday, he apologized for his words, but again said he didn’t like the fans cheering for prospective targets, like Hayward and, last year, Kevin Durant.

“I didn’t like that, either,” he said. “I just remember when I got here a couple years ago and we were however many games under .500, the fans cheered for us. Not one time did they cheer for another player when they came into town. Things have changed since then, I’m aware of that.

“That’s never happened in an arena that I’ve been in. I’ve never been on the road and got cheered for, or even one of my teammates get cheered for by the opposing team. It’s just something different for me that really set me off. I don’t like when they cheer for DeMarcus Cousins. I don’t like when they cheer for Kevin Durant. I don’t think you should do that. That’s all I was saying.”

Club president Danny Ainge had an interesting take on the event, and quipped Wednesday, “If I can get the crowd to cheer the starting small forwards every game, Jae would play his best. I like that. Whatever it takes to get him motivated to play, I’m OK with. But I agree with (coach Brad Stevens). I’m not worried about Jae Crowder at all.”

Said Crowder: “Obviously, I don’t want to leave Boston. Obviously, I love it here. Obviously, the fans have treated me great. No doubt about that.”

The Celtics (21-14) have won eight of their last 10 games and have won three in a row at home for the first time this season. Friday marks the start of a rarity – back-to-back home game. Boston hosts the New Orleans Pelicans Saturday night.

Isaiah Thomas scored 37 points and added seven assists in the Celtics’ 107-106 win at Philadelphia Dec. 3 — Embiid sat out that game to rest.

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Philadelphia 76ers vs. New Orleans Pelicans
When: 8:00 PM ET, Thursday, December 8, 2016
Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, Louisiana

TV: 8 p.m. ET, TCN (Philadelphia), FSN New Orleans
PREDICTION: Pelicans 103, 76ers 101

Oddsmakers currently have the Pelicans listed as 9-point favorites versus the 76ers, while the game’s total is sitting at 205.

NEW ORLEANS — Their shared numbers are ugly and humbling.

At 4-18, the Philadelphia 76ers have the worst record in the NBA and have nine healthy players.

Losers of three straight games despite the presence of a league superstar, the 7-15 Pelicans own the sixth-worst record in the NBA and have the flesh wounds to prove it.

So when the Pelicans host the 76ers in a match of NBA bottom-feeders Thursday night at the Smoothie King Center, it’s natural to assume the worst — of both.

“It’s very frustrating, to be honest with you,” said New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry, whose team dropped a 110-108 double-overtime decision at home to the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night despite Anthony Davis’ 28 points and 17 rebounds in 48 1/2 minutes. “I just had higher expectations and thought that we would have fewer injuries, to be honest with you.”

The Pelicans played without point guard Jrue Holiday in the Monday loss Memphis, and his absence was deeply felt. Holiday missed the first six weeks of the season while caring for his wife Lauren, who gave birth to their first child and then underwent successful surgery to remove a benign brain tumor.

When Holiday returned to the lineup, the Pelicans won a season-best five consecutive games at home, but Holiday sustained a turf toe injury during a Sunday night loss at OKC. The pain was so debilitating that Holiday could not push off on his left foot.

Holiday’s status for the 76ers’ game is uncertain.

“I didn’t know how excruciating it could be,” Holiday said on Wednesday. “People don’t understand that when you hurt your toe, you can’t do anything. If I could walk on my hands I would or if I could just cut it off it would be great.”

Amputation might be considered going a little bit beyond the NBA’s standard player’s contract.

While Gentry is trying to plug leaks in his lineup — guard E’Twaun Moore missed the Memphis game with a toe injury and forward Dante Cunningham has a broken bone in his leg — he is hoping his players can soldier through.

Little irritants have blossomed into bigger problems. The Pelicans held solid leads against Memphis at the end of regulation and at the close of the first overtime period but allowed the Grizzlies to make big shots to extend the game.

Gentry took the blame for one late-game snafu — he drew up an inbounds play that had the ball being thrown in from the opposite side of the court.

“One of them we drew up on the right side of the floor and the ball was on the left side,” Gentry said. “I take full responsibility for that. I’m not going to dodge anything.”

Davis leads the NBA in scoring (31.6) and blocks (2.81) and is sixth in rebounding (11.4), but his heavy lifting is beginning to wear him down. He also leads the NBA in minutes played (38.0).

“It’s just unfortunate for him because to me, he’s having an unbelievable, MVP season,” Gentry said. “When I think about what he’s done and the defenses he’s faced and still the numbers he’s put up — not just offensive numbers but being able to lead the league in blocked shots and being really solid defensively — it’s unfortunate.”

The Sixers had just nine players available in a 96-91 loss at Memphis on Tuesday night, and Jerryd Bayless (left wrist), Robert Covington (left knee sprain) and Jahlil Okafor (gastroenteritis) are not expected to join the team in New Orleans.

“This (was) our fourth game in five nights,” said coach Brett Brown. “We came down with nine guys, and you’re playing against a veteran, tough, playoff-hard Memphis team. I was proud of their effort.”

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Denver Nuggets vs Philadelphia 76ers
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, December 5, 2016
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Denver), CSN Philadelphia
PREDICTION: 76ers 106, Nuggets 103

Philadelphia had its home game against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday postponed due to condensation on the court because of the ice beneath and was crushed by the Orlando Magic on Friday before coming up just short in a 107-106 loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday. “There is a hint of reality,” 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters of his team putting up a better effort on Saturday. “The group that we have wanted to make amends, and we almost had a win against a very good team.” Denver dropped three straight and five of its last six after opening a six-game road trip with a 105-98 setback at Utah on Saturday. The Nuggets will not face a team with a winning record the rest of the trip and were happy with the way they competed against the Jazz to make it a tight game after falling well off the pace in the third quarter.

ABOUT THE NUGGETS (7-13): Denver shooting guard Jamal Murray was named the Western Conference rookie of the month for October/November but is struggling to carry the momentum into December. The 19-year-old Kentucky product is 1-of-11 from the field in two games this month and committed three turnovers while going scoreless in 18 minutes on Saturday. Fellow shooting guard Will Barton, who sat out the last three games of November to rest an ankle injury, picked up the slack by totaling 37 points on 15-of-31 shooting in the last two contests.

ABOUT THE 76ERS (4-16): Center Joel Embiid is the rookie getting most of the headlines, but rookie forward Dario Saric is also starting to emerge for Philadelphia. Saric matched a season high with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting against the Celtics and added 12 rebounds for his third double-double. “I prepared a little more for this game,” Saric told reporters. “I tried to give my best. I tried to play my best. I tried to think before everything happened.”

BUZZER BEATERS

1. 76ers SF Robert Covington (knee) sat out Saturday and is day-to-day along with PG Jerryd Bayless (wrist).

2. Nuggets SF Wilson Chandler is averaging 23.6 points on 51.6 percent shooting in the last five games.

3. Denver took the two meetings last season by a combined four points.

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Sacramento Kings vs. Philadelphia 76ers
When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Sacramento Kings’ latest loss left All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins feeling frustrated. He and his teammates will be looking to right the ship when the Kings play the third game in a six-game road trip Wednesday night against the 76ers in Philadelphia.

The Kings (7-11) lost 101-95 to the Washington Wizards in overtime Monday despite Cousins’ 36 points and 20 rebounds. Cousins, fifth in the NBA in scoring (28.7) and 11th in rebounding (10.4), poured in 12 of his points in the fourth quarter, including the tying basket with 10.1 seconds left.

The Wizards then reeled off the first seven points of the extra period to take command. Sacramento’s only points in OT came on Rudy Gay’s 3-pointer with 16.8 seconds remaining, and Cousins missed all three of his shots from the floor and both his free throws.

“Overtime, I’m sick about that,” he told the Sacramento Bee. “I feel like I completely choked in overtime. I’m not happy about the overtime.”

Gay finished with 18 points and Ty Lawson scored 12 off the bench for the Kings, who have dropped two of their last three games.

“This was a very winnable game,” Cousins told the Bee. “Hopefully this doesn’t come back to bite us in the butt later on.”

Gay is averaging 19.6 points a night, while Darren Collison checks in at 12.9 per game.

The Sixers also played Monday night, losing 122-97 in Toronto. Philadelphia, which rested rookie center Joel Embiid, suffered its 22nd straight road loss, one shy of the franchise record established from March 29 to Dec. 23, 2015.

The Sixers (4-14) have dropped four in a row overall to sink to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, a position they assumed the previous three years as well.

Embiid leads the team (and all NBA rookies) in scoring (18.2), rebounding (7.8) and 3-point accuracy (50.0 percent), and is expected to return against Sacramento. The third overall pick in the 2014 draft, he missed his first two seasons following a pair of foot surgeries. The team has also been limiting him to 24 minutes a game as a precaution, and plans to continue to do so until at least Christmas.

While Embiid figures to be back Wednesday, the status of veteran point guard Jerryd Bayless is far less certain.

Bayless, signed as a free agent in July, tore a ligament in his left wrist in the preseason and missed the first 13 games. He played the next three, then sat out Sunday’s loss to Cleveland as well as the game in Toronto with soreness in the wrist.

“Personally, I’m a little bit worried,” coach Brett Brown told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Sixers have been without forward Ben Simmons and center/forward Nerlens Noel all season.

Simmons, the top overall pick in the last draft, broke his right foot in training camp and underwent surgery. He is not expected to return until January.

Noel underwent minor surgery on his left knee in late October and is expected to miss a few more weeks.

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TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, TCN (Philadelphia), Sportsnet (Toronto)
PREDICTION: Raptors 110, 76ers 97

TORONTO — After playing eight of their past 10 games on the road, the Toronto Raptors open a season-long six-game homestand Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers.

When the Raptors defeated the Bucks 105-99 Friday at Milwaukee, they finished their 10-game grind with a 6-4 record.

“On the road, you’ve been edgy, you’ve been uptight, you’ve got the you-against-the-world mentality,” Toronto coach Dwane Casey said Sunday. “Now you come home to the comforts of home and relax and we can’t do that. We’ve got some good teams coming in, the young, athletic Philly team coming in, Memphis is playing well, the Lakers are playing well and Atlanta. It’s going to be a tough homestand, it won’t be a piece of cake whatsoever. “

The homestand will end with games against the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Raptors (10-6) are 4-3 at home and Philadelphia is 0-5 on the road this season.

The 76ers (4-13) are coming off a 112-108 loss to the Cavaliers at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday after leading for the first three quarters.

Philadelphia center Joel Embiid, who is coming back from foot injuries that cost him the past two seasons, will not make the trip to Toronto after scoring 22 points with nine rebounds in 25 minutes on Sunday.

“We played hard,” Embiid said. “We had a good defensive game. They just played better.

The game Monday will be the sixth he will have missed this season. The restriction in minutes and the skipping of some games fit in with his rehabilitation program. He also did not play in the 105-89 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

“You come up with some really hard decisions that maybe don’t favor me or us or whatever,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said. “But for the long-term lens that we all have, we have to be responsible with Joel Embiid. Winning a game in the middle of November in 2016, sometimes that takes a back seat.”

The 76ers were without point guard Jerryd Bayless on Sunday because of a sore left wrist. Bayless, a former Raptor, missed the first 13 games of the season after suffering a torn ligament in the wrist during training camp. The free-agent acquisition played in only three games. Bayless said his wrist was sore when he played against the Bulls on Friday.

The Raptors made a season-best 14 3-pointers against the Bucks and had double-digit scoring from six players.

While the offense is working, the concern remains the defense.

“We’ve got to be more conscious of letting teams get easy buckets, transition buckets, make everything a lot tougher on them,” said Toronto guard DeMar DeRozan, who is averaging 30.2 points. “Especially from the 3. Just be more disciplined. We can’t have mistakes. Once we get clicking defensively and everything comes together as one, we have a chance to be really good.”

Improving the defense is constantly on Casey’s mind.

“If we have to get guys in there that are going to be committed to the defensive end, we’ve got to do that because to get where we want to go, we’re kidding ourselves if we’re not committed to that end,” Casey said.

Forward DeMarre Carroll is improving as he returns from knee surgery and that should help the Raptors’ defense. He also scored 14 points on Friday.

“That’s what I’ve got to do,” Carroll said. “They’re double-teaming Kyle (Lowry) and DeMar (DeRozan). I’ve got to be able to space the floor, especially in the first unit. I’m just trying to do my part. I know at the beginning of the season I wasn’t doing my part, but now I’m trying to step up, and I’m just trying to progress and not look back.”

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Washington Wizards vs. Philadelphia 76ers
When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington), CSN Philadelphia
PREDICTION: 76ers 106, Wizards 103

Oddsmakers currently have the Wizards listed as 7-point favorites versus the 76ers, while the game’s total is sitting at 203.

Veteran point guard John Wall appears to be getting healthier. The struggling Washington Wizards can only hope to say the same.

Wall, who leads the team in scoring (22.3) and assists (8.3), underwent surgery on both knees in May and has not played games on consecutive days in the early stages of this season. CSN Washington reported Tuesday, however, that Wall is approaching the point where such restrictions might be lifted.

Washington, which is 2-7 and in last place in the NBA’s Southeast Division, plays the first half of a back-to-back Wednesday night on the road against the Philadelphia 76ers (1-9). The Wizards host the New York Knicks on Thursday.

Bradley Beal, the Wizards’ other starting guard, has missed the last two games with tightness in his right hamstring. He practiced Monday, however, and told the Washington Post he hopes to play versus Philadelphia.

Washington Stats:
Team record: 2-7 SU,3-6 ATS
Washington is 3-6 ATS in its last 9 games
Washington is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 10 of Washington’s last 15 games

“It’s not great,” said Beal, the Wizards’ second-leading scorer (15.4). “It’s not 1,000 percent, but it’s pretty close.”

Without Wall and Beal, the Wizards dropped a 106-95 decision to Chicago on Saturday night. After the game, starting center Marcin Gortat told reporters that Washington has “one of the worst benches in the league right now.”

The Washington Post reported that Gortat apologized to his teammates Monday, and that coach Scott Brooks was quick to extinguish the brushfire.

“I look at things from a whole,” Brooks told the newspaper. “When I played, I was a backup, and I didn’t like to be divided. We don’t have two teams here, we have one basketball team, and right now we’re not happy and content on being 2-7.”

Brooks, in his first year with the Wizards after seven as the Oklahoma City Thunder’s head coach, spent 10 seasons in the NBA as a reserve point guard, the first two of those with Philadelphia.

The Sixers beat Indiana in overtime last Friday for their lone victory of the season, snapping a 44-game losing streak in October/November games. They fell 117-96 the next night in Atlanta, and were beaten 115-88 Monday night in Houston, running their road losing streak to 20 contests. That equals the second-longest skid in franchise history.

“Tonight, we just didn’t really fight,” veteran guard Gerald Henderson told the Philadelphia Inquirer after the loss to the Rockets. “As a defense, you need to be locked in … on their individual players, their tendencies, and all that stuff.

“We got physically (and) just effort-wise, dominated.”

Rookie center Joel Embiid continues to excel, averaging team highs of 18 points and 7.3 rebounds despite being limited to 24 minutes a game as a precaution. Embiid, the third overall pick in the 2014 draft, missed two seasons while recovering from a pair of foot surgeries.

Philadelphia will be without forward Ben Simmons, the top overall pick in the 2016 draft, until at least January following foot surgery. Center/forward Nerlens Noel (knee surgery) and guard Jerryd Bayless (wrist) have also yet to play this season, though the latter was assigned on Monday to the Sixers’ NBA Development League team, the Delaware 87ers. He hopes to return by the end of the month.

Philadelphia Stats:
Team record: 1-9 SU,5-5 ATS
Philadelphia is 1-13 SU in its last 14 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Philadelphia’s last 5 games
Philadelphia is 5-2 ATS in its last 7 games at home

The Wizards have been without backup center Ian Mahinmi (torn medial meniscus, left knee) through their first nine games.

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Marshall was the 13th overall pick by Phoenix in 2012 and has played for the Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee.

He has averaged 5.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 130 games.

A two-year star for North Carolina, Marshall had an Atlantic Coast Conference-record 351 assists in 2011-12 and went on to win the 2012 Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard in NCAA Division I.

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