The Sixers look to continue their impressive showing at home | Off the Dribble

The 76ers returned from a four-game road trip and continued their winning ways at home with Wednesday’s 123-117 victory over the injury-depleted Brooklyn Nets. That increased the Sixers’ record at the Wells Fargo Center to 21-5.

The Sixers are in the middle of a challenging stretch. They will host the Clippers on Friday, the Golden State Warriors on Monday and the surprising Phoenix Suns on Wednesday before playing two games in three days at Milwaukee.

Those four teams entered Thursday a collective 58 games over .500, but as we have seen in this condensed NBA season, different wins have different meaning.

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— Marc Narducci (offthedribble@inquirer.com)

For quite some time, the Sixers’ game Wednesday against Brooklyn had been highly anticipated. That was before the Nets seemingly didn’t have half their team available, including James Harden and Kevin Durant, who combine to average 53.3 points.

That’s not the Sixers’ fault that the Nets were shorthanded. And it is not as if the Sixers haven’t had to play shorthanded at home. In their first home loss of the season, a 115-103 defeat to Denver on Jan. 9, the Sixers dressed only eight players and had just seven available.

In fact, of the five home losses, Joel Embiid didn’t play in three.

» READ MORE: Anthony Tolliver looks to help the Sixers in any way he can

Of note, the Sixers have beaten two championship contenders that were at full strength at home this year.

The first was a 107-106 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, with both LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the lineup. For the Sixers, Embiid had 28 points; Tobias Harris added 24, including a game-winning 15-footer with 3.0 seconds left; and Ben Simmons had a triple-double: 17 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Davis and James combined for 57 points.

The second was a 131-123 overtime win over the Utah Jazz on March 3 when Embiid had 40 points and 19 rebounds.

Now, yet another championship contender, the Clippers (39-18), will visit the Sixers. Doc Rivers’ former team edged Detroit on Wednesday, 100-98, playing without All-Stars Kawhi Leonard (sore right foot) and Paul George (rest), in addition to Serge Ibaka (lower back tightness) and Patrick Beverley (left hand fracture).

Leonard is listed as questionable for the Sixers game. Ibaka and Beverley are out, and George wasn’t on the injury report.

The Clippers have won seven consecutive games.

Winning at the Wells Fargo Center has been difficult recently for the Clippers, who have lost four in a row in Philadelphia.

Entering Thursday, the Sixers were among five teams that have won at least 20 home games. The others are Brooklyn (22-7), Utah (25-3), Phoenix (22-8) and the Clippers (22-8). Not coincidentally, all five teams are considered title contenders in a more-wide-open-than-usual NBA season.

The Sixers have been great at home. They have been more than solid on the road with a 17-12 mark. In games decided by six points or fewer or went into overtime, they are 8-2 at home and 2-2 on the road.

That statistic will be key during the playoffs when the games could be lower-scoring and tighter, at least in the later rounds, when the Sixers expect to still be alive.

Keith Pompey writes that the Sixers know their tiebreaker with Nets could be pointless if they struggle in the grueling stretch ahead.

David Murphy writes that as stars sit out marquee games, the NBA is stealing money from its fans.

Pompey offers his best/worst awards for the Sixers’ win over the Nets.

Pompey writes that Doc Rivers is concerned with too many Black men getting shot, arrested, or pulled over by police.

Embiid is among the top mid-range shooters in the NBA. The mid-range success has been a key to Embiid’s dominance.

The Nets have one less weapon for an expected playoff matchup with the Sixers after LaMarcus Aldridge announced on social media his retirement on Thursday.

Aldridge played only five games with the Nets after being bought out by the San Antonio Spurs. The final game he played was Saturday’s 126-101 home loss to the Lakers. Aldridge scored 12 points (5-for-8 from the field, 2-for-2 from the foul line).

He said he played his last game while dealing with an irregular heartbeat, also known as arrhythmia.

While he is known more for his offense, the 6-foot-11 Aldridge was looked on as another body that the Nets could throw at Embiid. His retirement likely leads to a more prominent role for DeAndre Jordan, who had 12 points and 14 rebounds Wednesday after not playing the previous five games.

» READ MORE: Sixers guard Furkan Korkmaz is taking his shot at postseason playing time | Keith Pompey

Aldridge finished with career averages of 19.4 points and 8.2 rebounds. He averaged 20.8 points and 8.5 rebounds in 72 playoff games. Aldridge, 35, was a seven-time All-Star, four times with the Portland Trail Blazers and three with the Spurs. He was named third-team all-NBA three times and second-team twice.

Friday: Los Angeles Clippers at Sixers, 7 p.m., Wells Fargo Center, NBC Sports Philadelphia/ESPN

Monday: Golden State Warriors at Sixers, 7:30 p.m., Wells Fargo Center, ESPN

April 21: Phoenix Suns at Sixers, 7 p.m., Wells Fargo Center, NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA TV

April 22: Sixers at Milwaukee Bucks, 7 p.m., Fiserv Forum, TNT

April 24: Sixers at Milwaukee Bucks, 3:30 p.m., Fiserv Forum, ESPN

Question: Marc, your blurb on high turnovers from only great players is interesting. I think you’re a good man who bends over backwards to be fair.

But honestly, if you’re attempting to provide cover for Ben Simmons, you left out some important context. All those great players averaged points/game much, much higher than any negative points from those turnovers.

That is definitely not true in too many Sixers games, when Ben mails one in.

I never saw so many commentators trying to convince fans that they’re not really seeing what they see.

Like the “Ben’s a great defensive player” drumbeat. Please tell me one great player, e.g. Irving, Doncic, Leonard, Zion ... who Simmons EVER helped hold under his ppg avg?

Listen, I want the Sixers to win the title and I’ve hoped every year since he was drafted, that Simmons would develop into a great player. But, in my opinion, he has not; in fact there’s a better case that he’s regressed. — Dick Welsh, via email.

Answer: Thanks for the comments, Dick. For those not knowing what he is referring to, in our last newsletter, there was an item on the players who have the most career turnovers and the leaders this year. Of the top 10 all-time turnover leaders, eight are in the Hall of Fame and the other two are LeBron James and Russell Westbrook, future Hall of Famers. The point was that great players commit a lot of turnovers because they handle the ball so much.

Not once was Simmons’ name mentioned in that story. As for Simmons’ guarding the top players, in the two games this year, Luka Doncic shot 0-for-4 from three-point range with Simmons on him, according to NBA.com stats. Zion Williamson shot 2-for-6 with Simmons as his primary defender. Kawhi Leonard was 0-for-1 in 4 minutes, 43 seconds of matchup minutes. Kyrie Irving was 1-for-2. I wouldn’t call any of them lighting it up with those numbers.

Simmons, in my opinion, is an elite defender. Where you have a point is with his offense, where Simmons hasn’t come close to matching his pre-All-Star Game showing when he averaged 22 points in his final nine games before the break. I maintain that Simmons is an All-Star on merit, but also realize he must be more consistent. This postseason will obviously be big for him. He won’t likely start shooting jumpers, but he must finish when he gets to the basket and also cut down the turnovers.

One last thing: Simmons might not play well some nights, but he doesn’t mail it in. He always plays hard. We disagree a lot about him, but I enjoy the debate.

Send questions by email to mnarducci@inquirer.com or @sjnard on Twitter.