The Sixers scratched and grabbed their way back to a 99-96 victory over the Knicks, driven by a 30-point game by Tobias Harris.
Here’s what I saw.
The good
• One guy basically maintained the Philadelphia attack during a first half that had ugly kicks and a decent number of turns: Tobias Harris. Harris was his only option of floor spacing for basically the entire first half, and in conjunction with some aggressive moves to the basket, he provided enough to help the Six keep going despite the absolutely terrible execution on the offensive side.
There seemed to be some personal energy in this game for Harris, who was competing with Julius Randle for the All-Star Game and seemed to keep that fact in mind when the two faced off. Defensively, Harris got low on his stance and forced Randle to work hard in the post area, where he made his money historically, and he was quick to hit him on the other side, defeating his counterpart with some good results. -drible moves on top of the external shooting.
After hitting a clutch bucket on the beam with time decreasing on Wednesday, Harris broke free while the Sixers headed for the bank for a timeout, apparently declaring that he he was the guy who deserved that shot for the mid-season game. It is hard to say that he was wrong for this – he came up with at least some monstrous defensive moves beyond the team crunch’s dominance in attack. And the strategy was not exactly disguised, with the Sixers letting Harris target the smaller / weaker defender on the ground until late, reminiscent of his recent performance in overtime against Jazz.
Harris is a scoring chameleon, a guy who is somehow constantly adapting to the situation in question, never out of place if he has to carry the team or Joel Embiid is the center of the universe. This is a credit not only to his skill set, but also to his mental approach, and it is difficult to do the work he does in the night-to-night attack this season.
He was the right man for Philadelphia on Tuesday night, and they needed him to use all the tools in the kit to get it out. Now he needs to do that against the Bucks tomorrow night.
• Dwight Howard’s revival continues. He was miles better than incumbent Tony Bradley on Tuesday (not that that says much), and if he had a better game setting from his racing companions in the second unit, he looked like he wanted to have a much better night. against New York. As it was, he offered more than enough for a guy in his role.
Howard’s rise in play recently really only makes me wonder what he would be like playing with a guard who has strength as a pick-and-roll player. Even a fully realized version of Tyrese Maxey would be something – Maxey loved to play lobs during his days in Kentucky, and those two showed some early pick-and-roll chemistry to start the year. Shake Milton has been pretty hit or miss as the leader of the game off the bench, and Howard feels like a guy who needs some dynamism in handling the ball next to him.
• Ben Simmons has already been in real he gets in trouble several times this season, but this game seemed to be one of the most difficult whistles he received throughout the year, although he was never really in danger. The Knicks won some cheap cards on really tough calls against Simmons, and they got away with a good deal of difficult things against him on the other end of the line.
I thought he navigated the game skillfully anyway, taking on different responsibilities as the situation in the game justified. The Sixers needed him to be an on-ball driver, a roll man out of pick-and-roll, the space maker in dribbling handoffs and the guy leading the break in the transition, and save for a few early turns, he managed to do it all this at a reasonably high level.
(Philly probably won’t have a better opportunity all year round than in the next two weeks to try on a variety of different looks with Simmons as the tracker. It’s already a big part of the manual, but with a small ball, something they may need down the road in the playoffs, it’s up to them to try whatever Rivers can sit on until Embiid comes back.)
There were more defensive possessions where he was toasted than on the normal night – he had most of his problems near the basket / post, with guys burning him in shoulder fakes – but he did a good job of slowing RJ Barrett.
• Credit to Furkan Korkmaz and Seth Curry for fighting back to this game after some absolutely putrid halves, with Curry kicking off after the break after an anonymous first part which we will see below.
The variety mentioned in the Simmons game was more beneficial to Curry than anyone else. Philadelphia helped him with a few dribbling handoff moves early in the third quarter, and a guy who spent most of the first 24 minutes in fear of kicking was suddenly taking battery test three out of the coach’s box, helping to shoot Philadelphia back to Game.
Korkmaz had the quieter part, but it was the bank’s main offensive during a run at the start of the fourth period that allowed the Sixers to stay close, and he gave holders a chance to close the deal in the final minutes.
The evil
• Doc Rivers’ decision to give Philadelphia’s small ball team a chance in the first half was sensible enough on the surface. Tony Bradley was basically not giving them anything, and the Knicks don’t have big ones that are really going to punish him for reducing the size a bit.
For my life, I just can’t figure out why the Sixers are playing that formation with Simmons as the nominal center and never trying to switch to defense. Simmons has shown you over and over again (this year and in previous years) that the rim guard is not a function for which it is suitable. In a brief run with that lineup on Tuesday, you saw it again – the Knicks had an easy time getting to the edge with Simmons not playing the kind of defense we’re used to with Joel Embiid.
If the Sixers want to try this, and the coaching staff has indicated that it is the case, they may well try to change the defensive style to match that. See what Simmons does well in defense and see if it works.
• You had to know that this would happen sooner or later, but the Philadelphia bank falling back to Earth basically at once was quite inconvenient for their plans on Tuesday.
I think Shake Milton had an affair as the worst of the group, accumulating a bad defensive game (one of the worst of the season) over a lifeless effort in the attack. When he is in this type of form, I do not know how you can ask the group of all banks to insure themselves. With due respect to Randle, who deserves credit for the progress he has made as a versatile player, his leading bodyguard should be licking his ribs if they see him in front of them in a situation of isolation. Milton looked down more than once and barely tried to approach him. Look hard.
(Inexplicably, they once again played good minutes to open the room, as they did against Utah in the team’s big win before the break.
• Transitional defense has been a point of emphasis on Philadelphia’s training ground and pre-game messages, and although there were some individual effort plays against the Knicks, the Sixers remain a work in progress in that department. New York may have been the team in the second half of a straight, but they routinely defeated the Sixers on Tuesday night, something I’m sure the team will illuminate for the next film shoot.
• Danny Green and Curry were bad in their own ways in the first half of Tuesday’s game, but I think one is a more impactful version than the other. Any guesses as to which offensive disability style I don’t like (d) anymore?
If you guessed Curry (and you probably didn’t), you would be correct. I will always, always, always live with one of the guys you are paying for and whom you trust to take photos by simply missing out on decent looks from the background. When Green loses a bunch of open or slightly contested jumpers, it’s annoying to watch and it must be a little annoying for the teammates who create the open looks, but you know he won’t blink when the ball passes in his direction, whether he wants it is 9/10 or 1/10 years old.
Curry just can’t be as hesitant to shoot as he has been for long periods this season, and how he went up against the Knicks in the first half of Tuesday’s game. Teams getting excited and challenging the Sixers’ snipers to beat them has been the game plan in big games for basically 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 given to your running buddies.
Once Curry started letting them fly in the second half, the Sixers’ attack suddenly seemed a little better. You can’t shoot if you can’t. Crazy concept, I know.
• The section above is how I really feel, but there is still no way to dress Danny Green’s offensive performance. That was a stink.
The ugly
• Can I nominate most of the first quarter for this section? Hell, I write the articles, I can name anything I want, if I want.
Both defenses deserve their share of credit for the difficult start, with individual players making good changes on both teams. But the Knicks’ defense style (pack the paint, don’t give up on anything easy) combined with a bad green game led to an absolutely brutal and almost impossible to watch game. The Sixers constantly had to recycle their belongings, and their only genuinely willing sniper was as cold as deep ice, shooting with bricks when objects rocked towards them. When that happens, it will be a long night.
It didn’t get any better with the bank group. They have no dribbling penetration on their best nights, and it was even more ugly against the Knicks, with many assets forcing Howard to isolate and create for himself. Yes, that Dwight Howard, the 35-year old backup center that you basically should never have to create for yourself.
I thought that basketball brand had died a long time ago. Please no more.
• As most of you know, I like 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, great. Trying to mix that with Superman’s musical theme is just ridiculous.
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