Besides Embiid's health and the potential return of Markelle Fultz, the Sixers' continued evolution on the defensive end of the court might hold the biggest sway over the next third of the schedule. It isn't that the Sixers have been bad: they rank 13th in the league in scoring defense (106.9 points per 100 poss), a number Brown says he is "OK with," especially when you consider that 17 of their 28 games have come against teams ranked in the top half of the league in scoring, including 10 games against teams in the Top 7. But the hiccups they have had have featured some porous perimeter D, including recent losses to the Suns and Pelicans in which Phoenix's Devin Booker scored 41 and the Pelicans' Jrue Holiday scored 34. Before Friday night, the Sixers and Nets were the only two teams in the league to allow 11 players to score 30-plus points, and nine of those 11 on the Sixers' end have been guards (the other two being LeBron, however you decide to classify him).