Sixers Head to Cleveland Unsure of Their Opponents

By Sean Kennedy

Following a lethargic effort at home against the Timberwolves, the Sixers will hit the road heading to sunny Cleveland, where the weather as I’m writing this is -8 degrees. Cleveland has lost 8 of their past 9 games and actually sit a game behind the Sixers in the Eastern Conference standings. However, whereas some Sixers fans bemoan the fact that the team isn’t losing enough, Cleveland management is highly determined to make a push for the playoffs this season and get crushed by Miami or Indiana in the first round. As a result, the team just made a huge win-now move, trading the thief also known as Andrew Bynum to the Bulls for Luol Deng, the Kings’ first-round pick (top-12 protected this year, top-10 following three years), and a couple second-rounders. (As an aside, say what you will about Bynum being injured last year, but the guy took $6 million from Cleveland when it became readily apparent he had no desire to play basketball there. That’s certainly disingenuous). Deng represents a huge upgrade for the Cavaliers at the wing position, and the team gave up very little of value to obtain him, taking advantage of a Chicago organization looking to clear cap space.

As for tonight, it’s unclear whether Deng will be available tonight, and Cleveland may continue to be without both Kyrie Irving (knee) and Jarrett Jack (back spasms), who have sat out recently and are questionable for the game against the Sixers. It would be a shame if Irving can’t go because I think fans of both sides would love to see another streetyard battle between Uncle Drew and Michael Carter-Williams like the double-overtime thriller earlier this season.

Regarding the play on the court, the Cavaliers aren’t a great shooting team (3rd-worst eFG% in NBA), especially if Irving, Jack, and Deng are all unavailable, but we’ve seen before how the Sixers defense can serve as a tonic for opposing offenses. It will be imperative for Sixers bigs to keep a body on Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao on the offensive glass; both guys are tenacious rebounders and we saw the damage Nikola Pekovic did on the offensive boards just last night against Philadelphia. Really though, it’s a team effort, as too many times against Minnesota, guards were getting beaten off dribble penetration and the bigs would have to come off their man to challenge the shot at the rim, freeing up Pekovic or whoever for an easy rebound. Nevertheless, it’s all going to come down to which Sixers team shows up. If it’s the squad we saw last night, treating the ball like a hot potato and disinterested in defensive intensity, forget about a victory here. However, if the road warrior Sixers re-emerge, this is really a great time to catch a shorthanded Cleveland team that’s ripe for the picking.