The Sixers scratched and slammed back after a 99-96 victory over the Knicks, driven by a game-high 30-point lead from Tobias Harris.
Here’s what I saw.
The good
• One man basically kept the Philadelphia attack going during a first half with ugly shooting and a decent number of turnovers: Tobias Harris. Harris was their only floor-space option for basically the entire first half, and in conjunction with some aggressive moves toward the basket, he provided enough to help the Sixers hang around, despite the downright awful performance at the attacking end. .
It was apparently a bit of personal juice for this match for Harris, who was in competition with Julius Randle for the All-Star Game and apparently kept that in mind when the two were paired. Defensively, Harris gets low and forces Randle to work hard in the post area where he has historically earned his money, and he is quick on the other side to get him back and beat his counterpart with a few nice punches. dribble moves on top of the outside shot.
After Harris scored a clutch in the post while Harris slid down in the fourth period, Harris let go when the Sixers walked a lap of time to the bench and apparently declared that he was the man who earned the bid for the mid-season game. Hard to say he was wrong for that one – he came up with at least a few monster defensive games above and beyond the dominance in attack. And the strategy was not exactly obscured, with the Sixers letting Harris line the smallest / weakest defender on the floor, reminiscent of his recent overtime performance against the Jazz.
Harris is a chameleon, a man who somehow constantly adapts to the situation, never out of his place whether he should carry the team or Joel Embiid is the center of the universe. It’s a tribute to not only his skill but also his spiritual approach, and it’s hard to do the work he’s offending night-to-night this season.
He was the man for Philly on Tuesday night, and they needed him to use every tool in the kit to get the one across the line. Now he has to do it tomorrow night against the Bucks.
• The Dwight Howard renaissance continues. He was miles better than starter Tony Bradley on Tuesday (not that that says much), and if he had a better setup of his runners on the second unit, he seemed in the mood for a much bigger night against New York to have. As it were, he offered more than enough for a guy in his role.
Howard’s excitement in the game actually just makes me wonder what he would look like with a guard who has real juice as a pick-and-roll player. Even a fully realized version of Tyrese Maxey would be something – Maxey loved throwing lobbies during his days in Kentucky, and the two showed early chemistry to start the year. Shake Milton was quite striking as the leading handler off the bench, and Howard feels like a man who needs a bit of ball handling dynamics next to him.
• Ben Simmons was in real this season a few times bad problems, but this game feels like one of the rougher whistles he got all year, even though he was never really in danger. The Knicks had some cheap earnings on Simmons, and they got away with a fair amount of rough stuff on the other side.
I thought he was in any case expertly navigating through the game and picking up different responsibilities as the game situation warranted. The Sixers needed him to be a driver on the ball, a pick-and-rollers, the space creator in dribble handoffs, and the man leading the transition break, and except for some early turnover, he managed to do it all at a pretty high level.
(Philly probably won’t have a better chance of trying out a variety of looks with Simmons as the show all year than the next two weeks. That’s already a pretty big part of the playbook, but with a small ball something they might need on the road in the playoffs, it is necessary that they try to sit on Riviers until Embiid returns.)
There were more defensive possessions where he was roasted than the average night – he had most of his problems near the basket / in the mail, with guys burning him on shoulder fakes – but he did a great job getting RJ Barrett to delay.
• The credit to Furkan Korkmaz and Seth Curry for dropping back in this game after some absolutely ominous first halves, and Curry put on a shooting performance after halftime after an anonymous first half.
The above variety in Simmons’ play was more than anyone else’s in favor of Curry. Philadelphia got him started with a few dribbles early in the third quarter, and a man who was afraid to shoot for most of the first 24 minutes suddenly pulled tries out of the coach’s box to get Philadelphia back in to shoot the match.
Korkmaz had the quieter half, but he was most of the bench’s offense during an early fourth quarter that left the Sixers hanging around, and he bought the beginners a chance to close the deal in the final minutes.
The bad
• Doc Rivers’ decision to give the Philadelphia lineup a chance in the first half was wise enough at first glance. Tony Bradley basically gave them nothing, and the Knicks do not have big ones who are really going to punish you for reducing you a little bit.
I just can not figure out for the rest of my life why the Sixers play that series with Simmons as the nominal center and never try to turn on the defense. Simmons has repeatedly shown you (this year and in recent years) that the skin protector is not a role for which he is suitable. In a brief run – up with the lineup Tuesday, you saw it again – the Knicks had an easy time getting to the edge, while Simmons did not play the kind of defensive defense we are used to with Joel Embiid.
If the Sixers want to try it, and the coaching staff has indicated that this is the case, they might as well adjust the defensive style to suit it. Lean on what Simmons is doing well in defense and see if it does the trick.
• You should have known that it would come sooner or later, but the bank of Philadelphia, which basically fell back to earth at the same time, was quite inconvenient for their plans on Tuesday.
I think Shake Milton had a case as the worst of the group and built up a bad defensive game (one of his worst of the season), on top of a lifeless attempt at attack. If he’s in that kind of shape, I do not know how you can ask the all-bench group to quit. Considering Randle, who deserves credit for the progress he has made as an everyday player, your central bank guard should lick their chops if they see him in an isolation situation in front of them. Milton stared at it more than once and barely tried to go to him. Tough look.
(Inexplicably, they played good minutes again to open the fourth as against Utah in the team’s big win before the break. I stand by the judgment anyway!)
• Transitional defense was an emphasis on the training ground and in Philadelphia’s messages before the game, and although there were good individual efforts against the Knicks, the Sixers are still a job in that division. New York may have been the team in the second half of a rugby game, but they beat the Sixers regularly on the floor Tuesday night, something I’m sure the staff will relieve them of during the next movie session.
• Danny Green and Curry were both bad in their own unique ways for the first half of Tuesday’s game, but I think one is a more effective version of bad than the other. Any guesses about whose style of offensive incompetence I do not like (d)?
If you guessed Curry (and probably not), you would be right. I will always, always, always live with one of the guys you pay and trust to make shots that just miss decent looks from deep down. When Green misses a bunch of open jumpers or light fighters, it’s worse to look at and it should be a little annoying for teammates who create the open look, but you know he’s not going to cut if the ball goes to his side does not swing, whether he is 9/10 or 1/10.
Curry simply may not be as tentative to shoot as for long periods of this season, and as for the first half of Tuesday’s game against the Knicks. Teams loaded into the paint and challenging the Sixers’ shooters to beat them were the game plan in big games for basically the entire Embiid / Simmons era, and he’s one of the guys to release the pressure in the playoffs and used to capitalize on the attention of his running mates.
. After Curry let them fly in the second half, the Sixers attack suddenly looked a little better. You can not make shots if you can not take them. Crazy concept, I know.
• I really feel like in the section above, but there’s still no way to attract Danny Green’s offensive performance. It was a stinker.
The Ugly
• Can I name most of the first term for this section? Heck, I write the articles, I can name anything I want if I feel that way.
Both defenses deserve their share of credit for the rough start, with individual players doing good innings on both teams. But the Knicks defensive style (packing the paint, giving up nothing easily) combined with a bad Green game, resulted in an absolutely brutal, boundless invisible game. The Sixers had to constantly retrieve possessions, and their only willing shooter was ice-cold from deep, brick shot after shot as possessions swung to his side. If that happens, it’s going to be a long night.
It did not get better with the banking group. They did not dribble penetration on their best nights, and it was even uglier against the Knicks, with many possessions forcing Howard to isolate and create himself. Yes, that Dwight Howard, the 35-year-old rugby center who basically never has to create for himself.
I thought this basketball brand died a long time ago. Please, no more.
• As most of you know, I enjoy the musical element of contemporary basketball. There’s still no reason to play two different songs in a row as Dwight Howard scores. If Howard wants to hear Trinidad James’ “All Gold Everything” when he scores, that’s fine. Trying to mix it with Superman theme music is just ridiculous.
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