Pelicans at 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers are a team on the rise now that they're building around rookie center Joel Embiid and are fighting through some squabbling to get into the win column. The New Orleans Pelicans, who visit the 76ers on Tuesday, were supposed to be a team on the rise as well but instead continue to display inconsistency as they drift toward the Western Conference basement.
Losses at San Antonio and Houston in consecutive games can generally be excused as a tough assignment, but the Pelicans want to be a team that competes with the powers in the West and strives to make the playoffs. "We’ve got to figure it out," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. "We’ve got to figure it out in a hurry. It’s not anything we’ve got a month to figure out. We’ve got to figure it out in the next week or so. What are we gonna be? How are we gonna play? We’ve got to be consistent in what we’re doing. That’s the disappointing thing." Philadelphia sits in the basement in the East but is singing a much more positive tune after pulling out a 108-107 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. "It felt like there was a rhythm to us defensively and offensively," Philadelphia coach Brett Brown told reporters.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN New Orleans, CSN Philadelphia
ABOUT THE PELICANS (9-20): New Orleans is peeking at the calendar and trying to determine exactly when they need to have their season turned around by in order to make a serious run at a playoff spot. “A week, maybe two, two and a half until the defining moment of our season,” Pelicans star power forward Anthony Davis told reporters. "We’ve got to, within that span, try to figure it out. It’s possible. We’ve shown the way that we want to play. We’ve actually done things the way we want to do them. We’ve got to do it on a more consistent basis." Davis needs to find some consistency of his own after going for 35 points and 16 rebounds in a win over Indiana on Thursday and slumping to a total of 31 points and nine boards in the next two contests.
ABOUT THE 76ERS (7-20): Center Nerlens Noel complained to reporters about only getting eight minutes of playing time in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, so Brown took him out of the rotation entirely on Sunday and went with just Embiid and Jahlil Okafor instead. Okafor grabbed 11 rebounds and Embiid responded with a season-high 33 points and 10 boards in the win. "I felt for the first time, he really wanted to dominate the game," Brown told reporters of Embiid. "He really wanted to win the game, to be the anchor to everything that we were doing."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Philadelphia SG Nik Stauskas (knee) sat out Sunday and is day-to-day.
2. Pelicans SF Solomon Hill is away from the team following the birth of his child and is questionable for Tuesday.
3. Embiid scored 14 points in a 99-88 win at New Orleans on Dec. 8.