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The Sixers scratched and found their way back to a 99-96 victory over the Knicks, propelled by a 30-point high from Tobias Harris.
Here is what I saw.
Good
• One guy basically kept the Philadelphia offense going for a first half that featured some horrible shots and a decent number of turnovers: Tobias Harris. Harris was their only floor space option for most of the first half, and in conjunction with a few aggressive moves to the basket, he provided enough to help the Sixers hang around despite a downright terrible execution on the attacking side.
There seemed to be a bit of personal juice in this game for Harris, who was competing with Julius Randle for the All-Star Game and seemed to keep that fact in his mind when the two were matched. Defensively, Harris got low in his position and forced Randle to work hard in the post area where he made his money historically, and it wasn’t long before he came back on him at the other end, beating his counterpart with a nice off-the-dribble moves over the outside shot.
After scoring a clutch bucket in the post as time ticked off in the fourth, Harris let loose as the Sixers walked to the bench for a timeout, apparently stating that he was the guy who deserved that offer for the mid-season game. Hard to say he was wrong about that one – he offered at least a few monster defensive plays in addition to critical moment dominance on offense. And the strategy wasn’t exactly in disguise, with the Sixers letting Harris target the smaller / weaker defenseman on the late field, reminiscent of his recent overtime performance against the Jazz.
Harris is a scoring chameleon, a guy who constantly adapts to the current situation, never out of the question that he has to carry the team or that Joel Embiid is the center of the universe. It’s an honor not only for his skills, but also for his mental approach, and it’s tough to do the job he does on attack from night to night this season.
He was the Philly man on Tuesday night, and they needed him to use all the tools in the kit to get this one over the line. Now he has to do it against the Bucks tomorrow night.
• The rebirth of Dwight Howard continues. He was way better than starter Tony Bradley on Tuesday (that’s not that saying much), and if he had better prep play from his runners-up in Unit 2, he had the look in the mood for a much bigger night against New York. In fact, he offered more than enough for a guy in his role.
Howard’s recent rise to prominence in-game really makes me wonder what he would look like playing 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 to throw lobs during his days in Kentucky, and these two showed early chemistry in the pick-and-roll to start the year. Shake Milton has been pretty hit and miss as a senior manager off the bench, and Howard feels like a guy who needs a little ball-handling drive by his side.
• Ben Simmons was in real bad trouble a few times this season, but this game felt like one of the roughest whistles he’s received all year even though he’s never really been in danger. The Knicks won a few cheap on some really tough calls against Simmons, and they got away with quite a bit of tough stuff on him on the other end.
I thought he was navigating the game expertly anyway, taking on different responsibilities depending on the game situation warranted it. The Sixers needed him to be a ball pilot, a roll man without a pick-and-roll, the creator of space in dribble transfers, and the guy leading the break in the transition, and save for a few. Early turnovers he managed to do all of this at a reasonably high standard.
(Philly probably won’t have a better opportunity all year round than the next two weeks to try out a variety of different looks with Simmons as the screener. That’s a pretty big part of the playbook already, but with a little ball, something they might need the road in the playoffs, it’s up to them to try whatever Rivers might be sitting on until Embiid comes back.)
There were more defensive possessions where he was grilling than the average night – he had most of his problems near the basket / at the post, with guys burning him on dummy shoulders – but he did a really good job. slowing down RJ Barrett.
• We thank Furkan Korkmaz and Seth Curry for their return to this game after absolutely putrid first halves, with Curry taking a post-half shot after an anonymous first half, we will get back below.
The aforementioned variety in Simmons’ game benefited Curry more than anyone. Philadelphia started him off with a few dribbling plays early in the third quarter, and a guy who spent most of the first 24 minutes afraid to shoot suddenly managed to make a hat-trick in the coach’s box, helping to bring Philadelphia back into the game.
Korkmaz had the quieter half, but he was most of the offense off the bench in a push early in the fourth quarter that left the Sixers hanging out, and he bought the starters a chance to wrap up. the deal in the last few minutes.
The bad
• Doc Rivers’ decision to give the Philadelphia smallball roster a chance in the first half was pretty healthy on the surface. Tony Bradley didn’t give them anything, and the Knicks don’t have any big guys that are really going to punish you for downsizing a bit.
For the life of me, I just can’t understand why the Sixers play this lineup with Simmons as the nominal center and never try to activate the defense. Simmons has shown you time and time again (this year and years past) that rim protector is not a role it’s suited for. In short with that lineup on Tuesday, you’ve seen it again – the Knicks struggled to reach the edge with Simmons not playing the kind of nose-down defense we’re used to in Joel Embiid.
If the Sixers want to try this and the coaching staff have indicated it does, they might as well consider changing the defensive style to match this one. Take a look at what Simmons is doing well in defense and see if that does the trick.
• You had to know it would happen sooner or later, but the Philadelphia Bank that collapsed on Earth in one go was embarrassing enough for their Tuesday plans.
I think Shake Milton had a case like the worst of the bunch, stacking a bad defensive game (one of his worst of the season) on top of a lifeless effort on offense. When he’s in that kind of form, I don’t know how you can ask the group of all the benches to hold on. With all due respect to Randle, who deserves to be commended for his progress as a versatile player, your main bench keeper should be licking his chops if he sees him ahead of them in a situation. isolation. Milton looked at him more than once and barely tried to attack him. Hard look.
(Inexplicably, they played good minutes again to open the fourth, as they did against Utah in the team’s big pre-break win. I stand by the assessment anyway!)
• The transition defense has been a focal point on the training ground and in Philadelphia’s pre-game message, and while there have been some good one-on-one games against the Knicks, the Sixers continue to ‘be a work in progress in this department. New York may have been the team in the second half of a back-to-back game, but they beat the Sixers consistently on Tuesday night, which I’m sure the staff will shed some light on in the next movie screening.
• Danny Green and Curry both were bad in their own way for the first half of Tuesday’s game, but I think one is a more impactful version of the bad than the other. Are there any guesses about the offensive ineptitude style that I no longer like (d)?
If you guessed Curry (and you probably haven’t), you’d be right. I will always, always, always be living with one of the guys you pay and trust to do shots that just lack decent stares from the bottom. When Green misses a group of open or lightly challenged jumpers it’s annoying to watch and must be a little boring for the teammates creating the open looks, but you know he won’t blink when the ball swings. he is 9 years old. / 10 or 1/10.
Curry just can’t be as tempting to shoot as he has been for long stretches of this season, and as he has been against the Knicks for the first half of Tuesday’s game. Teams charging into the paint and challenging Sixers shooters to beat them has been the game plan in big games for pretty much the entire Embiid / Simmons era, and he’s one of the guys who needs to release the pressure in the playoffs and capitalize on the attention paid to his racing mates.
Once Curry started letting them fly in the second half, the Sixers’ offense suddenly looked a little better. You can’t take snapshots if you can’t take them. Crazy concept, I know.
• This section above is how I really feel, but there is still no way to dress Danny Green’s offensive performance. It was a stench.
The ugly one
• Can I offer most of the first trimester for this section? Heck, I write the articles, I can come up with anything I want if I want.
Both defenses deserve their fair share of credit for the difficult start, with individual players making good changes in both teams. But the Knicks’ defensive style (pack the paint, give up nothing easy) combined with poor play Green made for absolutely brutal and unassailable play. The Sixers constantly had to recycle their possessions, and their only truly willing shooter was frozen to the depths, brick after the fact, when goods swayed in their path. When that happens, it’s going to be a long night.
It didn’t improve with the bench group. They lack dribbling penetration on their best nights, and it was even uglier against the Knicks, with plenty of possessions forcing Howard to isolate himself and create for himself. Yes, that Dwight Howard, the 35-year-old salvage center who hardly ever should have to create for himself.
I thought this brand of basketball was dead a long time ago. Please no more.
• As most of you know, I enjoy the musical element of modern basketball. There is still absolutely no reason to play two different songs one after the other when Dwight Howard scores. If Howard wants to hear Trinidad James’ “All Gold Everything” when he scores, fine. Trying to mix that up with the Superman theme music is just ridiculous.
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