The Sixers got punched in the mouth by the Pistons early on and were never able to recover, with Detroit rolling to a 119-104 victory over Philly. It seemed that the visitors missed Joel Embiid.
Here’s what I saw.
The good
• There were not many positive aspects to talk about in the first half, but Matisse Thybulle did one of his most encouraging parts of the season defensively, with the second-year wing rising after a difficult start to the season.
His breakout moment sort of happened by accident – with Ben Simmons in initial trouble and without regard for the Blake Griffin assignment, it was Thybulle who was forced to cover the considerably bigger and stronger Griffin. Thybulle did not let the discrepancy affect him and won the confrontation with the former Clippers star by hand.
Sliding around Griffin to face him again and again, Thybulle came up with several thefts that went the other way for scores, and he interrupted several other possessions with deviations, forcing Griffin to open a store much further from the arch than he wanted. Griffin would finish the first half in 1/6 and was visibly frustrated with Thybulle’s defense, escaping with several shoves to try to get rid of his cover.
Leaving his offensive mistakes aside (and there have been many lately), Thybulle seems to be settling in defense, giving the Sixers a good weapon off the bench when they need it.
• Probably the best Tony Bradley game of the year so far? Not to mention much, obviously, but he was a little better than Dwight Howard simply for playing composed and disciplined basketball in the rear. He didn’t make eye-popping moves, but he was in the right places most of the time, helping Pistons boxers, and used his soft hands to get some offensive rebounds in traffic, extending his possessions on a night the Sixers allowed that Detroit would do the same often.
I don’t think I would say that he deserves to take on the role of Howard anytime soon, but he should take a look from time to time, when everyone is available, especially when Howard is as bad as he was on Monday night. The positive side of Bradley is not very high, but he has a lot more time left in the league than Howard (at least in theory), so why not try to improve it a little?
• Tobias Harris was one of the few guys who came out ready to play in the first quarter, fueling the Sixers’ attack when no one else could get it to work. It wouldn’t be the first time that Harris would lead them to victory against his former team, and once he got an incentive from the reserve players, it looked like Harris would have a chance to win again.
It wasn’t supposed to be, as Harris’ hot start started to fade over time, but he was one of the few guys who stayed behind while other team members melted. There is no “The Okay” section for these articles and, considering the Monday night curve, I suppose we will leave it here.
The evil
• With Joel Embiid on the sideline, there are many opponents that the Sixers could face and where they would have an excuse to lose a game on the road. The Detroit Pistons is not one of those teams. The first quarter of Monday night telegraphed what that night would be like for Philadelphia, and that is simply not acceptable.
Philadelphia’s lethargy was felt mostly on the defensive end, where several guys just weren’t ready to play when the game started. Danny Green, whose legs came and went depending on the night, seemed to run on quicksand for much of Monday night, and part of that was just effort. Green was relegated to irrelevance in the second half, and with good reason.
The Sixers were smashed into the glass early on, an area where I will point the finger directly at Dwight Howard, who was unmotivated for a particular move or was too busy chasing a kick that would never block someone in the second chance. Philly paid for this approach, as it was a big reason why Detroit took the lead.
Winning games without everyone available has been a talking point for Rivers recently, with the head coach pointing out that they simply need to find ways to win games and play well if they are losing one or more of their best players. It’s the reality of this season and it’s been the reality of building around Joel Embiid for years, so they would do well to find a way to make it happen.
The bad start condemned the Sixers to a “I can’t get over the obstacle” game, in which they would scratch and grab to cut the lead, but they never made it really interesting, giving up an open three seemingly every time they were inside a attack distance. With the bank giving Doc Rivers decent minutes on Monday, the blame for this falls on the shoulders of the starting group.
• We’ve talked about this before, but you really start to see the flaws in Dwight Howard’s game when he has to play real minutes instead of clearing the game for Embiid. Problems were not a problem for Howard on Monday, which is usually the big problem when he is pushed into a bigger role, which made his poor performance even more striking.
Howard is still a remarkably good athlete for a 35-year-old pivot, but the problem is that he knows this and it influences the way he approaches the defensive end of the court. He still has enough in the tank to get up and fight, but the second jump is no longer there, and that leaves him dead on the glass if he doesn’t make the move on the first try.
• On a night without your best player, and even in a normal road game, you need your stars to rise and lead you to victory. If Ben Simmons’ fouls were “mild” or “questionable” or whatever you choose to rate them, the Sixers simply couldn’t afford to play recklessly on Monday night.
Taking the top two in quick succession can happen, especially for a player who needs to win physically like Simmons. But after catching a pair in the first five minutes of the game, you have to keep your antenna up for the rest of the night, aware that the referees are calling the game a little tight. Instead, Simmons suffered a useless third foul in a low-lever play on the post, and Philly was forced to play most of the first half without him.
We saw the opposite response from Embiid last Friday, with the big guy living to fight another day playing in passive defense in the ring for long periods of play. I also didn’t like this approach and I criticized Embiid for that at the time, but there has to be some kind of change in approach that shows an understanding of the game situation.
Even beyond the dirt problems, at this point you almost expect the Sixers to perform like that with Simmons in charge and Embiid on the shelf. The ability to increase a degree and make up for its absence does not seem to be there, and it is a drag.
(It’s probably a project left for the next off-season at this point, but a coach would do well to have Simmons punch jump stops for most of next summer. He is caught in various awkward positions heading for the basket because of footwork on its way to the basket, and the high-speed approach clearly needs to be changed.)
• It is really impressive how quickly secondary handlers can move from beautiful parts in good teams to overloaded due to the absence of just one person. This is especially true when the leader of the ball maneuver team spends most of the night in trouble, forcing a bunch of players to come forward and lead the attack or drown trying.
Shake Milton, Tyrese Maxey and Seth Curry had some decent moments on Monday night, but they were unable to help the team advance, coming closer when the young guards sparked a race for the Sixers in the first half to bring them them back in five. Other than that, basketball was hit or miss.
To be clear, I don’t mean this as a denunciation by this group, because all these guys have strengths that can help this team. But they are secondary players at the end of the day, and without a high level game at the top of the list, you can see them as they are. One of the reasons why I doubt this team as a real competitor when the playoffs start is because they depend on secondary players in the attack. Times will only get harder for them when it really matters.
• An important mark against Harris: he continued to make bad decisions with the ball after a bad game in that department on Saturday, coughing up some horrible turns that never had a chance to hit the target. If you’re asking me, I’d rather see you shoot the Sixers out of a game than try to get through the pick-and-roll traffic.
The ugly
• Any game without Joel Embiid qualifies at this point. The talent level of this team is much higher than what it shows when the big guy is not available.
• Did the officials consider this game balanced? I certainly think so, and it is not the style of play that I usually enjoy watching. But the Sixers never adjusted to the way the officers called, which is a surefire way to allow your opponent to live on the line and punish you for foolish defensive bets all night.
• The dispute between Josh Jackson and most of the Sixers team was like we were huffing and puffing for nothing in the fourth half, but I have to admit that I loved the image of Mike Scott, dressed in a nice dress shirt, stepping on the floor and ready to settle a dispute the old way. Casual business fights will never stop being funny to me.
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