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2023-24 NBA Regular Season
Cleveland Cavaliers v Philadelphia 76ers
Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Cleveland, Ohio
Saturday 30 March 2024
Tip-off at 01:30
Philadelphia 76ers face the prospect of having to take the long route to the playoffs as they prepare to face Cleveland Cavaliers at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on the morning of Saturday March 30.
The Sixers are in danger of failing to finish in the Eastern Conference top six after winning just four of their last 10 games to drop out of the automatic playoff berths.
Nick Nurse's team continue to struggle in the absence of injured reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid, while Kelly Oubre also sat out the 108-96 defeat to Sacramento Kings on March 26 with a sore shoulder.
Tyrese Maxey scored a game-high 29 points against the Kings, 21 of which came in the first quarter alone, but he was restricted to just three in the second half.
Nurse acknowledged Philadelphia missed a beat when Maxey came under increasing pressure in the third and fourth quarters as the other players didn't give him enough help.
"They started blitzing everything with him," Nurse said. "We didn't do a great job of taking advantage of that. We've been really good at it lately and tonight we weren't as good."
The Cavs (3rd) are in a much stronger position in the East, although they've potentially opened the door for Miami Heat (7th) and the Sixers (8th) after also winning just four of their last 10 games.
J. B. Bickerstaff's team are 4.5 games ahead of the Heat after they snapped a three-game skid with a 115-92 victory over Charlotte Hornets on March 26.
Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Georges Niang scored 17 points each against the Hornets as Cleveland had to do without Donovan Mitchell once more.
Mitchell has been sidelined since suffering a broken nose against Houston Rockets on March 16 and Bickerstaff gave an update on his star shooting guard 10 days later.
"He's progressing. The nose is something you can throw [on top of the knee injury]," Bickerstaff said. "We're always going to take the same approach with our guys.
"We're never going to put them into positions where we can cause longer harm. It's something that we monitor every day and as he progresses, it's what does tomorrow look like? Then he progresses again, what does that look like?
"So, just trying to stack as many of those good days on top of each other as we can so that way you don't have the in and outs and back and forth that can breed that inconsistency."
Cleveland Cavaliers v Philadelphia 76ers - Head-to-head, Regular Season
Games played: 226
Cavs wins: 108
Sixers wins: 118
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