The photo used above was taken by Michael Leff for NBA.com.

It is the 11th installment of the Philly Sports Stat of the Week and I’ve decided to add something to it. In the sports-crazed ecosystem that is Philadelphia, I felt that only highlighting one statistic was a disservice to the hectic and wacky Philadelphia sports teams. With that, I present to you readers the newest segment of this weekly series: Philly Sports Stat of the Week honorable mentions. I will be presenting the honorable mentions at the end of the article. 

The Philly Sports Stat of the Week is one that hasn’t happened too often. The Philadelphia 76ers won the rebounding battle in the team’s 129-126 win on Wednesday, January 4th over the pesky Indiana Pacers. The team won the rebounding battle just barely edging out Indiana’s 46 rebounds to their 45. Philly’s rebounding problems this whole season have been a glaring issue so the team winning the rebound competition is a small detail worth getting excited over.

A big reason for the Sixers coming out victorious in this category is because of the gang rebounding the team did. Only two players on the Sixers recorded less than three rebounds. Georges Niang grabbed one and Matisse Thybulle grabbed two. James Harden, Tobias Harris, De’Anthony Melton, Tyrese Maxey, P.J. Tucker, Montrezl Harrell, and Shake Milton all picked up the rebounding slack with the big fella Joel Embiid not playing. 

Logically, the Sixers winning or coming close to winning the rebound battle specifically behooves them because rebounding well ensures extra possessions for the team. Those extra possessions could be used to contribute more to the very good offense that the team is capable of running. Extra possessions would be especially beneficial for when the team can not keep players in front of them on the perimeter. 

I looked into the other games this season when the Sixers won the rebound battle. It wasn’t many out of their 37 games so far. The Sixers are 11-1 in games where they win the rebounding battle. Oddly enough, all eleven wins were at home. Philly is 23-14 on the season and that means their record when losing the rebounding battle is 12-13. Numbers don’t tell the whole story but certainly the Sixers should do their absolute best to imitate this trend and make it a habit. 

Honorable mention number one is a never-before-heard statement about this 2022-23 Philadelphia Flyers team and is that the team is on a 4-game winning streak. The winning streak pushes the club’s record up to 15-17-7, good enough for 7th in the Metropolitan division and 14th in the Eastern Conference. During the streak, the Flyers’ offense has picked up immensely as the team is averaging 4.5 goals per game. 

Honorable mention number two is coincidentally another never-before-heard stat about a Philadelphia team. This time it is about those precious, NFC East-leading Eagles. Well, they didn’t look precious, didn’t look like the NFC East leader, didn’t look like a well-rounded team, didn’t look like a team playing for home-field advantage in the playoffs, and didn’t look like a Super Bowl Contender. That honorably mentioned stat is 0 red zone attempts for the Eagles. 

The offense couldn’t move the ball in any way conceivable. The only touchdown was on an A.J. Brown weird home run-ish route where the defender got tripped up and Brown got two steps on him to get downhill to the endzone. Jalen Hurts and Lane Johnson were severely missed in the 20-10 loss and in their extensive meaning to the team’s offense as well as team morale.