Scene Setter:
For the second time in less than a week, the 76ers (8-50) head into a back-to-back set of games. Both teams that the Sixers will visit the next two nights are opponents that happened to pass through The Center during the previous week. Up first are the Orlando Magic (25-32) at 6:00 PM EST on Sunday at Amway Center. That contest will be followed by a road pairing with the Washington Wizards on Monday. When last on the floor on Friday at The Center, the Sixers managed to hang with the veteran, playoff-focused Wizards for the better part of two and a half quarters. The Sixers took at 52-48 advantage into intermission, and, after withstanding a charge from Washington at the outset of the second half, upped their lead to six points with just under two and a half minutes remaining in the third quarter. With his club having minimal margin for error in terms of its post-season hopes, John Wall seemed to sense the urgency of the moment. He subsequently ignited a 13-0 spurt that put the Wizards ahead for good. Wall finished with a game-best 23 points (9-19 fg) and 11 assists. Jahlil Okafor generated a Sixers-best 21 points (9-13 fg), as he posted the 22nd 20-point effort of his rookie campaign. Orlando was in action on Friday as well, playing the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden one night after suffering a 130-114 home defeat to the Golden State Warriors in which Steph Curry went off for 51 points. Perhaps the quick turnaround was to blame, or maybe Orlando just had one of those evenings when it got off to a generally sluggish start, but – for whatever the reason – the Magic found themselves down by 18 points at the break. While its defense improved from the first to second halves, Orlando couldn’t chase New York down, losing 108-95. Nik Vucevic tallied a team-high 18 points (8-16 fg), and pulled down eight rebounds. Aaron Gordon produced 17 points (6-12 fg) and eight rebounds. Series: Last Tuesday, the Sixers and Orlando squared off at The Center, in what marked the third of four meetings between the Eastern Conference foes this season. Although the Sixers established a new season-high for points that evening, the Magic were too potent in the offensive-flavored battle, and turned in a 124-115 victory. Nik Vucevic, as he has done throughout his four-year stint with Orlando, proved to be a two-way force. His 35 points (13-21) were two off a career-high. He also grabbed nine rebounds. Ish Smith paced the Sixers with 22 points (7-15 fg), while Nerlens Noel compiled a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double, his 11th such outing of the year. Earlier this season, Orlando knocked off the Sixers, 105-97, at The Center in November. On January 20th, the Sixers beat the Magic, 96-87, at Amway Center. Subplots:
Despite falling short of a winning outcome in Friday’s 103-94 setback to the Washington Wizards at The Center, the Sixers were able to make good on another goal they had set for themselves going into the contest. Their defense was vastly fortified.After permitting opponents an average of 121.3 points per game and allowing them to shoot 48.5 percent from the floor through their first four outings back from the NBA All-Star Game break, the Sixers showed progress against the high-paced Wizards, beginning with the very first quarter of play. That period, Washington manufactured a modest 21 points, and converted just 10 of its 28 field goal attempts. For the first half, the Sixers surrendered only 48 points. In the Sixers’ four previous tilts, the opposition had put up at least 66 points between the first and second frames. Still, in the end, the Sixers did not emerge with a win, which was the objective they coveted most of all. Brett Brown wasn’t ready to buy into the notion of a moral victory.”I’d be disappointed if I ever walked up here and sort of say too much otherwise,” said Brown, who, given the loss, admitted he couldn’t be wholly satisfied with Friday’s performance, even given the Sixers’ defensive progress. “I hear your question, and especially how we’ve played Washington in the past. We want to go win some games. I think by and large it was a good game. We want to win.” The last time the Sixers visited Orlando, they enjoyed one of their top defensive efforts of the season, holding the Magic to 39.3 percent from the field in a 96-87 win. Orlando’s 87 points stands as the second-lowest total the Sixers have given up this season.
For fans of X-and-O hoops chalk talk, this next nugget might be right up your alley. In Brett Brown’s pre-game media availability before Friday’s game against Washington, the head coach provided details about several key defensive principles he’s tried to implement since joining the Sixers in August of 2013. In terms of defensive transition, the first thing that Brown and his staff look for from their players is, “Do we get back?” “Every trip down the floor, we judge your first three steps,” said Brown. “Every trip they’ve ever made for three years, we grade their first three steps. Your first step and a half will influence the rest of your trip, and what are your first three steps like? You have to get out of the mud.”Brown and his assistants have developed an effort chart to help them grade each roster member’s performance in defensive transition. Ultimately, Brown said, these evaluations are based upon “in our judgment, are you doing your very, very best.”Retreating to the rim, as Brown mentioned, is priority number one, especially for the Sixers’ big men. After that, the next layer of the squad’s transition defense scheme is “obviously the ball is king,” according to Brown. He continued, “You go from there. Most dangerous [player]. If you’re the last man in transition defense, you’re going to go opposite the ball, unless you’re playing against a really bad defensive team. Most good teams cover the strong side. So in trail, if all of a sudden you can’t get to that floor spot, you’re running back opposite the ball, and putting out a fire with somebody [with] swing, swing, shoot a three stuff. It’s very rigid to me the rules of transition defense.” Brown also addressed the state of the Sixers’ on-ball, man-to-man defense. “When we get out and pressure and we turn people over, as well as move our feet and show our hands, then it’s good,” said Brown. “You want it all. That’s the ability to know your personnel, to guard your man. Do you take that individual challenge, guard the yard? You can go all over the place, but it starts with can you do your job individually. And the pieces behind that are hands and feet always, then it’s the intellect of who you’re guarding. What are his strengths? He likes to go right, he likes to go left, he’s a shooter, he’s a cold guy, he can’t shoot, we’re just going to play off him. All that comes into play of how do you guard your man.”Alright, then. That was a decent amount of insight. Defensive chalk talk courtesy of Brett Brown over for now.
In addition to wanting the Sixers to tighten up their defense as of late, Brett Brown has also been seeking stronger production from the team’s first-stringers. That sentiment rang particularly true following the Sixers’ 111-91 loss at Detroit Wednesday, when the starters accounted for 30 of the club’s points.The flip side of that statistic, however, reflected positively on the Sixers’ reserves, which combined to score 60 points. It was the third time this season the back-ups accumulated at least 60 points. “I think that they’ve saved us,” Brown said about his bench on Friday. The group also put up 43 points in the two Sixers’ two outings that preceded their setback to the Pistons. “I think that they have come in and put out a bunch of fires. I feel like they have come in with a far greater level of intensity, and got us back on track a little bit. I think that you look at the pieces of who I’m talking about on that second group, they’re big spirited guys that are probably more defensive inclined. I think they realize that coming off the bench they’re going to make a pop, make an impact, and I think that they have.”Brown credited forward Jerami Grant for always coming into games with a “pop.” He also praised big man Richaun Holmes for doing “a good job” against Detroit, when the rookie registered four points and seven rebounds. Brown didn’t stop there. “I think Kendall [Marshall] the last few times that I’ve said, ‘You come in the game,’ he’s shown that he’s capable, and his fitness base has been good. Isaiah [Canaan’s] made some big shots for us off the bench. Hollis [Thompson] has been with me since day one, so I have sort of a soft spot for him. I think you can go in small doses to a lot of them.”
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