![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2257849449-784x441.jpg\")
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Tyrese Maxey poured in 36 points to lead the 76ers over the Rockets on Jan. 22.<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia 76ers (43-36, 8th in Eastern Conference) take on the red-hot Houston Rockets (50-29, 5th in Western Conference) for an interconference tilt on Thursday night (8 ET, League Pass<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are three storylines to know before tonight\u2019s matchup:<\/p>\n 1. Sixers trying to avoid play-in: Following a 6-2 span that included important victories over Charlotte and Minnesota, Philly has lost two in a row, falling to the No. 8 seed in the East<\/a>. With only three games remaining in the 2025-26 regular season, the Sixers are running out of time to clinch a postseason berth, but there\u2019s still room for them to move up by the end of the week. Just two games separate the ninth-place Hornets from the fifth-place Hawks, so a 3-0 or 2-1 record to close out the campaign would do wonders for the City of Brotherly Love.<\/p>\n 2. Rockets sharing the rock: Houston has rattled off an impressive seven-game winning streak after going 4-6 over their previous ten outings. They have identical records as the fourth-place Los Angeles Lakers (50-29), but with Los Angeles in a tailspin and banged up with injuries to Luka Don\u010di\u0107 (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique), the Rockets have a solid chance at leap-frogging them come the final day of the regular season.<\/p>\n The Rockets have blasted off during this crucial span, particularly on the offensive end. In their last seven contests, they rank sixth in scoring (122.7 ppg<\/a>), second in offensive rating (128.0<\/a>), first in 3-point percentage (41.5), seventh in assists (30.6) and second in plus-minus (16.3). They\u2019ve dished 30 or more assists in all but one outing while limiting their miscues, as their 12.0<\/a> turnovers a night are third-best since the start of the win streak.<\/p>\n 3. Reed Sheppard providing a spark: Although his numbers may not jump off the page, the second-year guard has earned a starting role down the stretch, and it\u2019s paid huge dividends for Ime Udoka and the Rockets. Following back-to-back losses at the hands of the Lakers in mid-March, Sheppard shifted to the first unit alongside Kevin Durant, Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. <\/p>\n In 11 appearances since March 20, Sheppard is averaging 14.8 points<\/a>, 3.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.9 steals and only 1.4 turnovers on 46.5 \/ 44.4 \/ 100.0 shooting splits with a plus-7.8 plus-minus rating in 28.7 minutes. Houston has gone 9-2 during this stretch and ranks fifth in offensive rating (123.0<\/a>), eighth in defensive rating (110.9) and fourth in net rating (12.1). Their fourth-quarter offense has looked much cleaner and more efficient with the playoffs approaching, something that should only help in their chase for a championship.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyrese Maxey poured in 36 points to lead the 76ers over the Rockets on Jan. 22. The Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[183364,85,46,105],"class_list":["post-384108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-76ers-rockets-preview","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}