Philadelphia 76ers: Their best chance for a win is tonight

Two of the top three picks in the 2015 National Basketball Association draft squared off Monday when the Minnesota Timberwolves took on the Philadelphia 76ers at Target Center.

Rubio has a defensive rating of 102, which is the best on the team among the guards and only behind rookie Karl-Anthony Towns and part-time players Gorgui Dieng and Kevin Garnett.

“I didn’t want to lose”, Wiggins said afterwards as Drake’s “Legend” blasted through the upbeat Wolves locker room. “Now the next layer is we’ve got to teach them how to close out a game with a win”. He might not be all the way back yet, but he’s getting there, and he gives the Sixers some desperately needed two-way consistency from the wing – beastly as Jerami Grant has been on D this year, you have to hope Covington is starting alongside Noel and Okafor soon enough, to at least give them an outside chance of achieving some kind of half-court spacing.

Martin and Wiggins both figured in one of the game’s most striking plays, when Martin had a shot blocked but Wiggins, who was trailing the play, turned it into a slam dunk. For a moment it felt like déjà vu; the winless Sixers would again walk into Target Center, like they did last season as an 0-17 squad searching for their first victory, and send the Wolves to another agonizing defeat.

“He’s turning into an unbelievable player right before our eyes every night”, Minnesota coach Sam Mitchell said of Wiggins. “I feel like since we got that first win, the wins can start piling up now”. Garnett finished with 8 points and 10 rebounds in 17 minutes in his best game of the season.

“It’s not a moral victory”, Okafor said. And Okafor, who is used to playing on teams that win at a solid clip, is still trying to get used to losing. The Tennessee State product broke out with 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting on Saturday, and knocked down his first three 3-pointers of the campaign.

Towns hit a jumper to open the second half for Minnesota, then picked up his fourth foul less than two minutes into the third quarter, forcing him back to the bench. “We were in a position to get our first win, and we just couldn’t get into anything at the end of the game”, 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters. “I respect where they’re at”. This version of the Sixers will try to avoid joining that group when they play against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.