Heat Overwhelms Celtics' Frontcourt in Dominant Showdown, Seizing Top Spot 114-102!

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers played host to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday evening looking to move forward with their season. The Sixers were, once again, missing guys like Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and others, and faced a tough task against a solid Trail Blazers team. Despite a 9-0 deficit to start the night, and the many pieces missing, the Sixers were able to dig deep and knock off the Blazers 109-103 for their second straight win.

Philadelphia held its own in the rebounding battle against this much bigger Portland team and were able to grind out a win at home. Quentin Grimes had a season-high 31 points for Philadelphia, VJ Edgecombe had 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Justin Edwards had 21 points. Dominick Barlow added 11 points, Cam Payne had 11 points, and Andre Drummond added six points, 17 rebounds, and four steals.

Here are the player grades following the win: VJ Edgecombe: B-plus The rookie was unable to get much going early in this one. He had a couple of highlight buckets, but other than that, it was something of a struggle until he finally found a bit of a rhythm as time went on. He was able to get to his spots as the game wore on and then knocked in a couple of shots to get the scoreboard moving a bit.

He was terrific on the glass, more than solid defensively, and was helpful in a number of areas. Edgecombe is just a winning basketball player. Even on nights like this one when he doesn’t have a huge scoring effort, he knows how to positively impact the game.