Sixers beat up on injured Rockets, 135-115, and extend their lead over Nets to two games

HOUSTON — What’s a 76ers game without the opposing team being undermanned?

Wednesday’s contest against the Houston Rockets was the Sixers’ sixth consecutive game against a team missing key players. And Philly was victorious against the Rockets just like in the previous five games. This time, it was a 135-115 decision at the Toyota Center.

“These types of wins don’t excite me too much, because we haven’t really played good teams,” Joel Embiid said of the winning streak. “Right before, we played Milwaukee twice, we played Phoenix. We played Steph [Curry and the Golden State Warriors] when he was hot, and making everything.

“So we had a couple of tough games against pretty good teams. Maybe the games have been easier and we’ve been dominating and [the starters] haven’t played any fourth quarters.”

The Sixers (45-21) lost four straight games to the Warriors, Suns, and Bucks (twice) before embarking on their season-high-tying winning streak. The Atlanta Hawks are the only team they’ve faced with a winning record.

But these victories are benefiting the Sixers.

The Eastern Conference’s first-place team now has a two-game cushion over the second-place Brooklyn Nets with six games left.

Embiid was back to his dominant self, finishing with 34 points and 12 rebounds in 24 minutes, 38 seconds. He went 14 of 16 from the foul line. Seventeen of his points came in the third quarter. That’s when the Sixers exploited the advantage Embiid had over Kelly Olynyk, the Rockets only healthy center.

“I asked one of our guys, I said, “This is not rocket science. You have a matchup against our best player,” coach Doc Rivers said. “‘Let’s use it.’ I thought our guys did a good job of it.”

Embiid and the Sixers’ other starters sat out the fourth quarter.

Shake Milton added 19 points. In all, the Sixers had seven double-digit scorers and shot 53.2% from the field, including making 15-of-35 three-pointers.

Olynyk paced Houston with 27 points.

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For the Rockets (16-50), this was their third straight loss and 13th in 15 games. Dressing just eight players, they never had a chance. Houston finished with just seven available bodies, as Kevin Porter Jr. left with a sprained left ankle in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, standout John Wall missed his sixth straight game with a strained right hamstring. He’s likely out for the remainder of the season.

Former Sixer Christian Wood (right ankle soreness), D.J. Wilson (NBA COVID-19 health and safety protocol), Jae’Sean Tate (NBA COVID-19 health and safety protocol), David Nwaba (right wrist sprain), Eric Gordon (right groin strain), Dante Exum (right calf strain), and Daniel House Jr. (right ankle soreness) were all out.

The Sixers were without Furkan Korkmaz (sprained left ankle).

One could assume a contending team would want to face an opponent at full strength to get a true barometer. With that, Rivers had to be a little disheartened about facing an undermanned team for the sixth straight game?

“No not at all,” he said before the game. “No one felt disheartened when we were missing players that I remember,” he said. “I don’t remember Denver saying ‘Oh my God we don’t want to play this game.’ That’s the way it is this year.”

On Jan. 9, the Sixers played with seven guys in a 115-103 loss to the Denver Nuggets at the Wells Fargo Center. Then two nights later, they dressed nine players in a 112-94 road loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

However, the Sixers have been an elite team competing against the walking wounded on a nightly basis lately.

“But it’s this way every year,” Rivers said. “It’s obviously not this many injuries, but every year you go through a regular season [and] catch a stretch where you play every team that’s healthy and rolling. Then you catch a stretch where guys are banged up or teams are healthy and actually not playing well.”

That’s why Rivers said you can never read into games heading into the playoffs.

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But what about a competitive standpoint? Surely, the Sixers would like to see what they can do against other top players.

“We are competing against ourselves every night,” Rivers said. “We are the opponent every night. We feel like when we prepare and play well, things will go well. If we don’t, they won’t.

“So I don’t give literally two shakes about who’s playing on the other team. Our job is just to be ready this game, then the next game and be ready for the playoffs.”

The Sixers led 39-30 after one quarter thanks in large part to Ben Simmons and Danny Green.

Simmons had 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting, while Green added nine on 3-for-3 shooting, all three-pointers. Embiid added eight points in the quarter, but the center made just 2-of-8 field goals.

Embiid got in a better groove in the second quarter, making 3-of-4 shots to add nine points. He had 17 at the half as the Sixers led, 75-63. Embiid’s 17 points in the third quarter came on 5-for-5 shooting.

The Sixers extended their lead to 19 points (95-76) midway through the third quarter and had a commanding 24-point lead in the fourth.