Sixers Clobber Cavs in Philly

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Despite the current losing streak, the Cavaliers have hung tough with some top-tier competition. That was not the case on Saturday night in Philly.

The Sixers – who still haven’t dropped a game at home – jumped on the Wine & Gold early, scoring the game’s first 10 points and never looking back, running away with the 141-94 decision at the Wells-Fargo Center.

Ben Simmons scored a career-high 34 points on 12-of-14 shooting in less than three full quarters of work and the Sixers – who were without All-Star big man Joel Embiid – shot a gaudy 63 percent from the floor and led by as many as 53.

The Cavaliers struggled just as badly on the offensive end – shooting 38 percent from the floor and featuring just four players in double-figures.

Darius Garland led Cleveland with 17 points on 7-for-20 shooting, including 3-of-9 from long-range, adding five boards and three assists.

Tristan Thompson followed up with 12 points, going 5-of-10 from the field, adding three boards and four assists in the loss.

Collin Sexton finished with 10 points to extend his double-figure scoring streak to 45 straight games, but like most of his teammates, struggled from the floor – going 3-for-13, adding a pair of assists and a steal.

Jordan Clarkson came off the bench to tally 10 points of his own, adding three boards, an assist and a steal in 16 minutes of work.

Jordan Clarkson grabs his own rebound before throwing down the soaring dunk in the third quarter of Saturday's game against the 76ers.

Unfortunately, the turning point of Saturday’s blowout came not long after tip-off.

The Sixers came out firing, led by Simmons, who scored eight of Philly’s first 10 points before the Wine & Gold even got on the board. Brett Brown’s squad would proceed to shoot 63 percent from the floor in that first – to just 27 percent for Cleveland – and proceeded to lap the Cavs after one, 36-18.

Things spiraled from there, with the Sixers extending their lead to 41 at half – essentially putting the game on ice at intermission.

583 … career games that Tristan Thompson has played as a Cavalier, moving him up to 8th on the franchise’s all-time list, eclipsing the great Mark Price.

Next up on the list for Tristan is Anderson Varejao, who played in 591 contests, and Austin Carr, who suited up for 635.

Coach John Beilein, on his squad’s recent struggles …

"We haven’t been 100-percent several times. We haven’t been able to practice as people make adjustments. Our schedule has been relentless. Almost everywhere that we’ve played has been a playoff team. Teams are just better than us. There have been a couple recent games that we could have won. All the other games that we’ve lost were against teams that are frankly better than us at this point of the season."

Enjoy the best broadcast calls of the night from Cavaliers Radio Network's Tim Alcorn and 87.7 La Mega's Rafa Hernandez-Brito.

The Cavaliers wrap up their mini-trip on Monday night, traveling to Boston for the first of two trips to New England this month.

Cleveland comes home for one – taking on James Harden and the Rockets on Wednesday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse – before hitting the road for three more, traveling the face the Spurs on Thursday, Bucks on Saturday and Raptors the following Monday night.