The Sixers could have swaggered in their fight on Wednesday night against defending champions Lakers with a four-game winning streak.
They are still first in the Eastern Conference at 12-6, but are not flying so high after the 119-104 loss on Monday to the Pistons at Little Caesars Arena.
Joel Embiid (back strain) and Derrick Rose (left knee pain) were both sidelined. Mike Scott was out with swelling in his right knee, while Vincent Poirier was out because of NBA health and safety protocols.
Scott was called in for a technical foul early in the fourth period when he intervened after an exchange of words between Ben Simmons and Josh Jackson, stepping off the bench to get into Jackson’s face and, characteristically, showing no hesitation in defending one of his team’s stars . Jackson was sent off shortly after that altercation while continuing to talk to Simmons, hit him in the face and won a second technical foul.
Coach Doc Rivers said he expected Embiid to play on Wednesday, but was still unsure whether to do so.
“His back is stiff and we obviously want to spend the season with everyone healthy,” said Rivers before the game. “It is the right thing to do.”
Here are the notes on the loss of the Sixers on Monday in Detroit:
Late for the party
While one of Dwight Howard’s greatest strengths is his recovery, the Sixers started sadly in that department. Detroit caught 11 of the first 13 rebounds in the game and jumped to a 26-11 lead.
A little luck was involved in the extreme early rebound differential, but the Sixers were also slow. The fact that Simmons whistled for two fouls before five minutes had passed did not help. He was called to his third at the start of the second period, prompting Rivers to keep him in the bank for the rest of the first half. Simmons couldn’t get rid of his problems, biting a fake Blake Griffin bomb with 7:47 left in the third quarter. He ended the game with 11 points, four assists and four rebounds in 21 minutes.
“With Mike Scott gone, we just can’t have any problems with Ben and Tobias (Harris), and we’ve played consecutive games now,” said Rivers. “We managed to escape the other night, but we couldn’t make it this night without Joel on the floor. ”
With all due respect to the Pistons, the Sixers shouldn’t be 15 points behind a 3-13 team eight minutes into the game, regardless of Embiid status, Simmons foul problems or disagreements over refereeing (Howard caught another technical foul, as on Saturday).
“I didn’t think we were ready,” said Rivers. “Defensively, we were not organized. In the first play of the game, they get a three – a play that we work on. For me, it tells me something about us that I didn’t like. Again, you cannot get them back. It happens, but I thought there were many times in the game where we had a chance to play again.
“The only thing – and the team has to know that – when you don’t have a Joel or a Ben playing, or who is not playing and they are your key guys, when you identify a 14 team, it will be difficult to win that game I thought tonight was a great example of that. ”
Matisse Thybulle’s level of activity stood out from the teammates in the first half, while he looked for opportunities for a turnaround and added the necessary energy.
Tony Bradley started the second half in Howard’s place and played well. The 23-year-old scored 12 points and nine rebounds in the game and reinforced his defense of playing time in the future.
The big picture without Embiid
The Sixers are now 0-4 without Embiid this season.
This record does not mean that the team desperately needs to look for a different backup center solution. Howard is a great decent second-unit man who didn’t play even close to his best during the games that Embiid lost. One problem with Howard is that his game doesn’t naturally match Simmons as well as Al Horford’s, as he offers much less in terms of kicking, floor spacing and passing. That said, it was perfectly sensible for Sixers’ basketball operations president, Daryl Morey, to invest in a possible bargain at the support center, signing Howard with a veteran minimum contract for the season after the Sixers gave Horford a contract of four. years with $ 97 million guaranteed.
Perhaps the Sixers could explore creative in-house options, like more small ball lineups in games where Embiid is out, but Simmons in the center certainly didn’t look like a panacea.
If Embiid is not healthy for the playoffs, the Sixers’ chances of winning games and series dramatically decrease. This is not a big revelation.
We have seen, at least during their first nine games together, that the individual components of the initial Sixers line-up become better for each other. The Sixers still haven’t lost when Simmons, Embiid, Seth Curry, Danny Green and Tobias Harris started. For Glass Cleaning, this group has an excellent net rating of over-18.9 out of 379 possessions not related to waste.
When one or two pieces are missing – especially a player like Embiid, one of the most valuable players in the league – the Sixers are much easier to win.
On the wrong side of the free throw disparity
The Sixers entered the game in second place in the NBA in offensive free throws and in 13th in defensive free throws, for Cleaning the Glass.
Embiid has been a big factor in his success, of course, and the team lost the ugly free-throw battle on Monday night without him. Detroit hit 32 of 38 from the foul line, while the Sixers hit 15 of 20. In addition to the simple fact of Embiid’s absence, these numbers also indicate that the Pistons came into contact more (and with great effectiveness) than the Sixers.
Simmons, after hitting 10 out of 12 free throws on Saturday, converted just 1 out of 3. Harris, who led the Sixers with 25 points, hit 2 out of 4 false kicks.