Three reasons the Sixers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves

The 76ers continued their dominance at home with Saturday’s 122-113 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was the first game following a six-game road trip. The Sixers are now 20-4 at the Wells Fargo Center.

Here are three reasons for the win

After missing the previous 10 games with a bone bruise in his left knee, Joel Embiid returned and while he said afterward that there was some rust, he was effective. Early on, he was getting his points by going to the foul line. Embiid scored seven points before he was credited with a field goal attempt.

He was posting up and nobody on Minnesota could handle him. The one sign of rust was at the free throw line. Embiid entered the game shooting 85.9% from the line. He shot 9-for-13 from the stripe in the first half, 12 of 17 for the game while scoring 24 points in 28 minutes, 35 seconds.

Here is an incredible shot that Embiid made while getting fouled by Karl-Anthony Towns.

Embiid also made his presence felt on the defensive end as you can see here.

Embiid finished with three blocked shots and was a game-best plus-20.

One of the reasons Tobias Harris is enjoying his best season is that he has punished NBA teams that have defended him with smaller players. Harris has posted up against the smaller defenders and when there have been defenders his size or bigger, Harris has shown great quickness by driving right by them.

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Here is an example of his quickness, taking 6-foot-9 Jaden McDaniels to the basket late in the game for the dunk.

Harris scored 12 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter and continued to prove effective as a closer.

The Sixers are second in the NBA in transition points per game, averaging 15.8. In this game, the Sixers exceeded that total by a good margin, outscoring the Timberwolves, 23-15, in fast break points.

One reason the Sixers didn’t put the game away earlier was that in the fourth quarter, when they were outscored, 30-25, Minnesota shut them down in transition. The Wolves owned a 4-0 advantage in the fourth quarter.

Yet in the first three quarters, the Sixers had the break going strong. Here is an example of a third-quarter break that was started with the defense of Simmons and ended with his jam.

The Sixers in general, and specifically Simmons, are much more effective when the transition game is jelling.