76ers at Raptors
The Toronto Raptors' offense has taken off since the returns of Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol, Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell, leaving the team looking like it can challenge the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference. The Raptors will try to push their winning streak to five straight when they host another team aiming for an East title - the Philadelphia 76ers.
Toronto is averaging 128.5 points over its last four games and battled through some shooting struggles as a team to pull out a 122-117 victory at Atlanta on Monday afternoon. VanVleet and Kyle Lowry combined to go 7-of-22 from the floor (1-of-9 from beyond the arc) but Powell picked up the slack off the bench and continued to show no ill effects from a shoulder injury that robbed him of nearly a month by scoring a team-high 27 points while going 6-of-9 from 3-point range. The 76ers had an early start on Monday as well and extended their own winning streak to four in a row as All-Star point guard Ben Simmons took over. Simmons finished with a triple-double with 34 points on 12-of-14 shooting, 12 rebounds and 12 assists while adding five steals in a 117-111 triumph at Brooklyn.
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: ESPN, NBCS Philadelphia, TSN1/4, RDS2
ABOUT THE 76ERS (29-16): Monday's victory clinched a winning three-game road trip for Philadelphia, which improved to 9-14 away from home behind Simmons and a key late 3-pointer from Furkan Korkmaz. The 76ers began the trip with a 90-87 triumph at New York on Saturday and are managing to win of late despite the absence of All-Star center Joel Embiid (finger) and some shooting struggles from forward Tobias Harris. Harris went for 34 points on 14-of-20 shooting in a home win to begin the streak on Jan. 15 but averaged 14.3 points on 15-of-42 shooting over the last three contests.
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (29-14): Powell scored 17 points in the fourth quarter on Monday and reached 20 or more in each of his five games since returning to the lineup. The 26-year-old is shooting 59.2 percent from the floor in those five contests while Gasol is averaging 13.3 points and is 11-of-21 from 3-point range in four games since coming back from a hamstring injury. VanVleet (hamstring) was the last of the four to return and averaged 24.5 points over the last two games while making up for a 4-of-11 performance from the floor on Monday by going 11-of-14 from the free-throw line.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Raptors SG Terence Davis scored 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting in 19 minutes on Monday after going scoreless at Minnesota on Saturday.
2. 76ers SG Matisse Thybulle is 4-of-25 from 3-point range in seven games this month.
3. The home team took each of the first two meetings this season, with Siakam's 25 points leading Toronto to a 101-96 home win on Nov. 25.