NBC Sports Philly Aired a 2K Simulation of Sixers vs. Timberwolves on Wednesday Night

Without any sports on to broadcast in America, certain television stations are looking for anything they can do to entertain sports fans during this tough time. NBC Sports Philly is typically the broadcasting home for Philadelphia teams such as the Sixers, Phillies, and the Flyers. So at the moment, they have nothing to broadcast as all three teams are on a hiatus due to league suspensions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite sports being on hold, the show must go on from NBC Sports Philly's studios. So over the last couple of weeks, the network has attempted to entertain Sixers fans with reruns of past games from not only this season -- but previous years as well.

While that's all fine and dandy, they eventually had to figure out a way to mix things up. Re-airing particular games to entertain fans is an excellent way to kill time. But knowing the result of the game before it even concludes can make the viewing experience not all that great. So on Wednesday night, NBC Sports Philly came up with something different.

Instead of airing reruns of games from this season, the network used an NBA 2K20 simulation of real-time. Had the season not been suspended two weeks ago, the Sixers would've faced the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road on Wednesday night.

Therefore, a Sixers versus Timberwolves 2k simulation was broadcasted to the world, and the outcome was quite interesting. In typical Sixers fashion, injuries did occur, and they happened to some of the usual suspects.

Sixers' center Joel Embiid had a few moments where he grabbed at his shoulder, which is likely related to the fact he came back from a shoulder injury just before the season shut down a couple of weeks ago.

Along with Embiid, Sixers' shooting guard Josh Richardson was showing signs of pain in the simulation as well. Ironically enough, the veteran guard has missed 17 games for the Sixers this season. So obviously, NBA 2K20 attempted to make the game as realistic as possible. That was until the game results were revealed.

Why doesn't this game automatically play Here Come the Sixers?

Sixers with the very realistic win on the road. pic.twitter.com/RDIA96XkAY
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) March 25, 2020

On the road, the Sixers knocked off the Timberwolves with a 70-67 victory. Why's that funny? Well, it's no secret the Sixers struggle when playing away from the Wells Fargo Center. With a road record of 10-24, the Sixers were shaping up to have the worst away record out all any playoff team across the two conferences.

But in the video game, they took down the T'Wolves away from home. Some would like to think the Sixers were gearing up to turn everything around later on down the stretch this season, but it seemed unlikely. However, we won't know if they can start winning games on the road now for a while. With the NBA suspended with no return in sight, all we are left with is NBA 2K20 simulations and our imaginations.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_