The Sixers scratched and made their way back to a 99-96 victory over the Knicks, fueled by a maximum score of 30 points from Tobias Harris.
Here’s what I saw.
Good
• One guy practically maintained his Philadelphia offense during the first half, which featured ugly shots and a decent amount of turnover: Tobias Harris. Harris was their lone spacing option essentially for the entire first half and, coupled with some aggressive basket movements, provided enough to help the Sixers stand up, despite the downright terrible execution at the offensive end.
Apparently there was 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 in mind when the two were tied. Defensively, Harris went down in position and forced Randle to work hard in the post office area where he earned his money historically and was quick to return to him at the other end, beating his counterpart with something beautiful -dribble moves over the outside shooting.
After scoring a low-pitched clutch bucket in the fourth, Harris lost weight as the Sixers went to the bench for a timeout, apparently stating that he he was the guy who deserved that offer for the mid-season game. Hard to say he was wrong about that – he came up with at least a few monster defensive games in addition to the dominant position during the attack. And the strategy wasn’t exactly disguised, with the Sixers letting Harris target the youngest / weakest defender on the floor late, recalling his recent additional performances against Jazz.
Harris is a remarkable chameleon, a guy who somehow constantly adapts to the situation, never moved if he has to lead the team or Joel Embiid is the center of the universe. This is a merit not only for his skills, but also for his mental approach, and it’s hard to do the job he does on offense night after night this season.
He was the man for Philly on Tuesday night and they needed him to use all the tools in the kit to get him across the line. Now he has to do this against the Bucks tomorrow night.
• The rebirth of Dwight Howard continues. He was miles better than starter Tony Bradley on Tuesday (not that he says too much) and if he had a better setup game from his second-team running colleagues, he looked in a mood to have a much longer night. greater against New York. As it was, he offered more than enough for a guy in his role.
Howard’s recovery in the game recently makes me wonder what it would look like to play with a guard who has a real juice as a pick-and-roll player. Even a fully crafted version of Tyrese Maxey would be something – Maxey liked to throw lobes during his days in Kentucky, and the two showed some early chemistry to choose from to start the year. Shake Milton has been pretty hit-or-missed as the main leader on the bench, and Howard feels like a guy who needs some dynamism to handle the ball with him.
• Ben Simmons was in real Ugly problems several times this season, but this game felt like one of the harshest whistles he received all year, although it was never in danger. The Knicks won some of the cheapest on really rough calls against Simmons, and on the other end they got away with quite a bit of rough stuff.
I thought he sailed with experience in the game anyway, taking on different responsibilities as the situation of the game justified it. Sixers needed him to be a ball driver, a man who got out of pick-and-rolls, the creator of space in dribble transfers, and the guy who drove the break in the transition and, with the exception of a few turnovers, managed to do all this at a reasonably high level.
(Philly probably won’t have a better opportunity throughout the year than the next two weeks of trying a variety of different looks, with Simmons as the screen. It’s already a pretty big part of the playing card, but with the ball little something he might need to make his way to the playoffs, he must try whatever Rivers could stay until Embiid returns.)
There were more defensive goods in which he fried than usual night – he had most of his problems next to the basket / fasting, with guys burning him on the shoulder blades – but he did a pretty good job slowing down RJ Barrett.
• Furkan Korkmaz and Seth Curry deserve it because they fought again in this game after a few absolutely rotten first halves, with Curry displayed after the break after an anonymous half, we will get below.
The variety mentioned earlier in Simmons’ game has benefited Curry more than anyone else. Philadelphia made him go with a few dribbling games early in the third quarter, and a guy who spent most of the first 24 minutes afraid to shoot suddenly took a three-way heat check from the coach’s box, helping Philadelphia shoot. back in the game.
Korkmaz had a quieter half, but it was the bank’s biggest offense during an inning at the start of the fourth quarter that allowed the Sixers to stay around and bought the holders a chance to close the deal in the final minutes. .
The river
• Doc Rivers’ decision to give the Philadelphia lineup a chance in the first half was healthy enough on the surface. Tony Bradley offered them virtually nothing, and the Knicks have no big ones to really punish you for cutting back a little.
For the rest of my life, I can’t figure out why Sixers plays that line with Simmons as the center fielder and never tries to activate the defense. Simmons has shown you countless times (this year and in previous years) that rim protection is not a good role for him. In short, with that line on Tuesday, you saw him again – the Knicks easily made it to the rim, with Simmons not playing the kind of boring defense that Joel Embiid got used to.
If the Sixers want to try this, and the coaching staff has indicated that is the case, they might as well look to change their defensive style to fit it. Focus on what makes Simmons good on defense and see if that does the trick.
• You should have known it would come sooner or later, but the Philadelphia bank is crashing back to Earth, all of a sudden, it was pretty awkward for their plans for Tuesday.
I think Shake Milton had a case as the worst in the group, accumulating a bad defensive game (one of his worst of the season) in addition to a lifeless offensive effort. When it is in this form, I do not know how you can ask the group of all banks to resist. With all due respect to Randle, who deserves credit for his progress as a general player, your bank guard should lick his chops if I see him in front of them in a situation of isolation. Milton looked at her several times and barely tried to walk to him. Hard look.
(Inexplicably, they once again played good minutes to open the fourth, as they did against Utah in the team’s big win before the break. I’m in the evaluation anyway!)
• Defense in transition has been a focus on the practice field and in pre-game messaging in Philadelphia, and while there have been some good individual effort games against the Knicks, the Sixers continue to be an ongoing work in that department. New York may have been the team in the second half of a back-to-back, but they usually beat the Sixers on Tuesday night, which I’m sure the staff will light up at the next film session.
• Danny Green and Curry were both evil in their unique ways for the first half of Tuesday’s game, but I think one is a more impactful version of evil than the other. Any assumptions whose style of offensive ineptitude I don’t like more (d)?
If you guessed Curry (and you probably didn’t), you’d be right. I will always live, always, always with one of the guys you pay and trust to take pictures simply lacking the decent deep look. When Green misses a bunch of open jumps or slightly contested, it’s aggravating to watch and must be a little annoying for teammates creating the open look, but you know it won’t blink when the ball binds, no matter if it’s 9 years old . / 10 or 1/10.
Curry just can’t be as tempting to shoot as he has been for long periods this season and as he was against the Knicks in the first half of Tuesday’s game. The teams that loaded the paint and challenged the Sixers shooters to defeat them was the game plan in the big games for practically the whole Embiid / Simmons era and he is one of the guys who has to release the pressure in the playoffs and capitalize on the attention of his teammates. running.
Once Curry started letting them fly in the second half, Sixers’ offense suddenly looked pretty good. You can’t take photos 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 well.
ugly
• Can I nominate most of the first quarter for this section? Heck, I write the articles, I can nominate anything I want if it suits me.
Both defenses deserve their share of credit for the tough start, with individual players making good exchanges for both teams. But the Knicks defense style (wrap the paint, don’t give up anything easy), combined with a bad green game, led to an absolutely brutal, unimaginable game. The Sixeris had to constantly recycle the goods, and their only truly willing shooter was ice-cold, deep, shot, shot, after the shot, when the possessions swayed. When that happens, it will be a long night.
It didn’t improve with the group on the bench. They miss the dribbling penetration in their best nights and it was even worse against Knicks, with a lot of goods that forced Howard to isolate himself and create for himself. Yes, that Dwight Howard, the 35-year-old backup center, who, in principle, should never have to create for him.
I thought this basketball brand died a long time ago. Please, no more.
• As most of you know, I enjoy the musical element of modern basketball. There’s still absolutely no reason to play two different songs back when Dwight Howard scores. If Howard wants to hear “All Gold Everything” by Trinidad James when he scores, fine. Trying to combine this with the Superman theme is simply ridiculous.
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