The Sixers’ bench put up one heck of a fight against the undefeated bubble Suns yesterday but ended up falling short 130-117. Tonight, the Sixers are back on the court facing the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors hold the second best record from inside the bubble at 5-1 and 51-19 overall.

Toronto is locked into the No. 2 seed, while the Sixers are a game behind the No. 5 Pacers. It’s looking more likely that the Sixers will get the 6th seed in the playoffs which means they will face Boston 1st round and the Toronto Raptors in the 2nd round for the second year in a row.

Moving out of that matchup remains a possibility for Philadelphia, which has won three of six in Florida and begins play Wednesday two games behind 4th seed Miami and one back of 5th seed Indiana.

The Sixers do get Joel Embiid back tonight. Brett Brown has opted to rest Alec Burks, who’s coming off three consecutive games of 20+ points. It has also been reported by Kevin McCormick that Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, and Al Horford will also be available tonight.

Philadelphia star Joel Embiid (left ankle) will return to 76ers lineup tonight against Toronto, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 12, 2020 

Given the potential playoff matchup down the road, it’s great to see the Sixers get their starters back for tonight’s game. We’ll see how many minutes each of the starters get tonight. My guess, Brett Brown will air on the side of caution.

WHAT TO WATCH: 

Matisse Thybulle struggled with fouls yesterday. A clearly frustrated Thybulle picked up a technical and had 5 fouls early in the 3rd quarter. Back on December 8th, Thybulle had a career game against the Raptors scoring 20 points.

Sidelined with an injury at the start of the seeding games, GRIII is back with the Sixers and has played well. GRIII continuing to get playing time and back in the swing of things over the next 2 games before the playoffs will be key. With Alec Burks resting tonight, GRIII should get plenty of playing time.

Although his minutes will most likely be limited, it will be good to see Joel Embiid go against the Raptors given the fact that Embiid was held scoreless once and sat out on a second occasion when Philadelphia lost twice at Toronto.