PHILADELPHIA – The slip ups by the 76ers this season have been few.
Of the 10 losses they’ve suffered in the 2023-24 campaign so far, only the Celtics and Bulls had bragging rights on beating Philadelphia twice.
Tuesday in the City of Brotherly Love was simply retribution, and then some.
A 20-8 run by the home team to start the game, a first quarter in which the 76ers scored 43 points, and by halftime the Bulls finding themselves in a 31-point crater against one of the better defensive teams in the Eastern Conference, well, go ahead and start warming the buses early.
Welcome back, Joel Embiid!
That’s right. As well as having payback on their minds, the 76ers also got back their league MVP in Embiid, after he missed the last four games with a bad ankle.
There would be no easing back from the injury in the eventual 110-97 Philadelphia win.
Not only did Embiid put up 22 first-half points, but also grabbed eight rebounds. Even more impressive was he handed out six assists in that first half, which was one more than the Bulls (15-20) had as a team going into the locker room.
A good foundation for Embiid’s 31-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple-double, and just the headliner of a list of ugly first-half Bulls numbers.
Philadelphia shot 50% from three (10-of-20) to the Bulls’ 10.5% (2-of-19), had 20 assists to the Bulls’ five, and turned the Bulls over eight times while only spitting it up twice. A butt kicking of epic proportions to ring in the new year.
“It sucks, you definitely don’t want to lose like that,” veteran DeMar DeRozan said. “Give credit to them. They responded how they were supposed to respond, especially knowing that we came in here and beat them (two weeks ago), and then just beat them (Saturday) at home. You gotta give them credit. We came out and couldn’t make nothing.”
Not the only issue on the night for the visitors.
“The way we shoot the basketball cannot impact the physicality that we have to play with defensively, and I thought that they pretty much were getting whatever they wanted,” coach Billy Donovan said of the performance, or there lack of. “I’m not a big flush-game guy. I think there is always something to be learned in any situations, but we have to move forward from this.”
In a hurry with a game in New York Wednesday night, and possibly even more short-handed.
The Bulls came into the contest with Zach LaVine (right foot), Torrey Craig (plantar fasciitis) and Nikola Vucevic (groin) back in Chicago rehabbing injuries, and then lost Patrick Williams in the first half with a recurring ankle injury.
According to Williams, he tweaked the ankle in the Indiana game, played through it, re-injured it on Saturday, but again played through it.
On Tuesday, however, even in warm-ups it wasn’t responding.
“A lot of times just the adrenaline of the game or when your body gets going, it starts to loosen up,” Williams said. “This time it didn’t. Trying to be smart about it. The ankle or lower extremities is nothing to play with.”
It didn’t make matters easier that Coby White also rolled his ankle in the second half, and while it wasn’t believed to be serious, he sat out the rest of the one-sided affair.
Now awaiting the Bulls will be Tom Thibodeau, who has gone 11-5 against his former team since his firing, both with the Timberwolves and Knicks.
“With Embiid coming back, we knew this was going to be a challenge,” DeRozan added. “But you’ve got to flush it, as much as you don’t like it, we’ve got to move on and get ready for (the Knicks).”