Denver's Last-Minute Magic Surpasses Philadelphia in Final Blowout!

The Philadelphia 76ers paid a visit to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday looking to start their 3-game road trip on the right foot. The Sixers, once again, were undermanned as they invaded Ball Arena missing the likes of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr. , and Jabari Walker.

Due to those absences, the result was predictable. The Nuggets led wire-to-wire and finished off the Sixers with a 124-96 blowout win. Nikola Jokic didn't do a lot of scoring, but his playmaking was terrific as he had 14 assists along with eight points and seven assists for Denver while Cameron Johnson had 18 points and Christian Braun added 22 points.

The Sixers received 12 points out of Quentin Grimes and nine points out of VJ Edgecombe while MarJon Beauchamp had 16 on the night while Trendon Watford had 12 points and six assists. Justin Edwards added nine points and Andre Drummond had nine and 10 rebounds. Here are the player grades following the loss: VJ Edgecombe: D Welcome to being the top guy on the scouting report, rookie.

The Nuggets paid a ton of attention to Edgecombe every time he touched the ball and made life tough for him. Denver isn’t a great defensive team—it entered the contest ranked No. 22 in defensive rating—but it does have veteran players who can follow a scouting report and bother opponents.