Philadelphia 76ers vs. Chicago Bulls Preview

The Philadelphia 76ers start their weekend off with a match at the Wells Fargo Center against the Chicago Bulls.

The Philadelphia 76ers start their weekend off with a match at the Wells Fargo Center against the Chicago Bulls.

The fifth-seeded Sixers come into Friday night's match off of a close battle against the then-sixth-seeded Indiana Pacers. The match would see Philadelphia enter the third quarter ahead of Indiana, 97-84 before the Pacers sparked a comeback that sent the game to overtime after James Harden failed to ice the game off by uncharacteristically missing two free throws.

When the game entered overtime, De'Anthony Melton came up big for the Sixers, scoring five points, including his fifth three-point shot of the night.

One of the more challenging aspects of the game was that Doc Rivers was without his franchise player as Joel Embiid sat out of the game with soreness in his left foot, which will keep the Eastern Conference Player of the Month out on Friday night.

On the other side of the ticket sits the Chicago Bulls, who have been on a streak of recent success, winning three of their last five games. Their most recent victory came against the Brooklyn Nets, who they defeated by a final score of 121-112.

Patrick Williams, Nikola Vucevic, and DeMar DeRozan all put up over 20 points in the Bulls' recent win, on a night where the Nets struggled shooting, finishing the game with a field goal percentage of 46 percent.

Alex Caruso is on the injury report listed as questionable after the former NBA champion twisted his ankle on transition against the Nets.

Declan Harris contributes to All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @DecIanH.

---

For live updates on the Philadelphia 76ers, follow @All76ersFN on Twitter!