The Sixers approached their game against the Pistons half-heartedly and were punished by a younger, hungry team, with Detroit racing to a 102-94 win after James Harden spun in the second half.
I saw the following.
The good
• There were times in this game where I felt the box score overestimated Joel Embiid’s performance and impact on the game. Posting guards 20 feet from the basket is something he’s usually smart enough to avoid, and he’s had some unnecessary turnovers as a result of that practice. There were some defensive possessions where a little more effort would probably have saved them two points around the basket and he’s better than he’s shown at this end.
Ultimately, though, it’s hard to ignore that box score, efficiency, and ability to dominate an opponent even without their best stuff. The guy just ate up the Pistons, forcing their smaller front line to take a lot of fouls to try and stop him. Some nights, Embiid lives on the line enough to fix any problems elsewhere. This was one of those games.
Overall, the James Harden/Joel Embiid pick-and-roll remains Philadelphia’s best source of attack, a fact that becomes less surprising the more these two play together. No matter which strategy teams choose to do this, the Sixers end up tearing it apart, getting cheap matchups and open shots for their top two players.
Detroit chose to switch it up, hoping there wouldn’t be much of a difference between Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart on Embiid in the post and vice versa with Harden attacking from the periphery. Early in the game, it was Harden who found more success by isolating starters and benchers. Embiid took a little longer to gain a foothold, but he looked down on an inferior opponent all night, making defenders pay for every last grab, leap and step in the wrong direction.
This is arguably Embiid’s greatest gift – his mind. He’s occasionally compared himself to future Hall of Famer Chris Paul because he’s willing to take advantage of every last advantage he can and because he understands the rules to help him do it. The handful of Pistons players who had to guard him on Thursday would make a mistake, Embiid would pull the foul, and after a moment of fear towards the officials, most of them went to their place on the lane with resigned faces. It was the universal sign of “Yeah, I screwed up.”
Weirdly, I thought there were some spots where Embiid should have tried less than he did. You don’t need him to be chasing the Pistons in a late-season game, and I’d bet most in the organization would rather see him protect his body and health. These plays make for great highlights when he pulls them off, but they’re just not worth it.
In any case, Embiid was by far the best player on the floor, even with weak defense and some turnover problems. It will help him win the NBA scoring title. That’s the best I can say about this game.
• Another solid, understated performance from Tobias Harris during a run where he had plenty of them. If he ever finds ball contact in catch-and-shoot attempts and gets hot for a game, he might take over the second half of a big game because Embiid and Harden create fairly open looks for him.
Philadelphia’s offense on this occasion was quite disjointed, due to the iso-heavy style of both of their co-stars (at least one plays, for the most part, justifiably so). Having Harris as a contingency option was crucial for Philadelphia as they became stagnant as a group as he’s one of the few guys on this team who can create something out of thin air in an emergency.
The bad
• Matisse Thybulle has dominated many matchups on defense but Cade Cunningham had him down when he saw ghosts. The rookie dusted him off pretty well.
• It feels like every night we see a version of the tweet or an onscreen graphic that shows an opponent with a lot of bank points and the Sixers have little to nothing to show from their backups. And if you’re looking for someone to stand up for their backups, I’m not the type, and it feels like a front office mistake that they made the Harden deal and basically considered themselves done with the upgrade .
That being said, tonight wasn’t the night to complain about a lack of bench press if you ask me. For much of that game, Philadelphia’s offense consisted of James Harden getting the switch he wanted and then methodically turning down the clock to await his opportunity to attack. And that’s not a bad thing, provided he has it up and running. He had some three-point jumpers Thursday night, but Harden generally did a good job beating the first level defense and moving the Pistons into no-win territory in the first 24 minutes of the game. Do you foul a great free throw taker and put him on the line, or let him get to the basket with little to no resistance? They didn’t know what to do. But that all changed after half-time.
With the style of defense they play, Detroit basically asked Harden to try and hit them right on the edge all night. That’s not an opportunity he had in Philadelphia, and the biggest burning question facing the Sixers is whether that’s how teams will play in the playoffs.
In previous recaps, I’ve suggested that maybe teams in the playoffs would just live in isolation with Harden based on his physical appearance, turn their attention to Embiid, and trust Harden not to kill them as a top scorer. We want to get closer to this reality. As the game progressed, Harden struggled to create a breakup, eventually leading many broken, aimless possessions. He tried to sell foul calls that never came, and the Pistons were able to get easy run outs for buckets, ultimately ending that game.
Who is the real James Harden? I’m not sure if we know yet. I don’t think a game against the Pistons means much compared to his breakthrough against the Milwaukee Bucks, but the night-to-night fluctuations in quality are fairly typical of men as they age, even men of his talent and production stages. Summoning 30-point games isn’t as easy for Harden (understatement of the year) as it used to be, which is evident from his actual performance and observing how he plays. And this is a guy they brought in to help them win now. Having to guess if he’s going to look half-on-half decent, let alone game by game, is pretty brutal.
I’m just not going to sit here and complain that the bench didn’t score in the first half when they struggled to just get touches the entire half. Their job was to make sure Harden had room to operate and serve as targets to hit when he needed them, and the Sixers didn’t exactly struggle to score until Harden’s isolation success dried up. The bench isn’t why the Sixers had all five starters on the ground and were passed and outplayed by the Pistons in the final minutes of the game. The bench isn’t why the Sixers played a specific, incoherent style for most of this game. The second unit didn’t help, but they weren’t given many opportunities to help and one of their stars was bad in a way that has become a little too common early in his tenure.
(What the Sixers need to figure out is who and how to use with their bench group. Nobody wants to see Furkan Korkmaz, but Shake Milton doesn’t look as comfortable as a pure ground spacer next to Harden, and he doesn’t offer nearly the same off-ball Movement like Korkmaz. If any of these guys had been shooting consistently well all year it would have been easier to put together a coherent rotation, but they all underperformed in their own way. It’s a real Sophie pick.)
• If you’re looking for criticism to level specifically at Doc Rivers and the coaching staff, Philadelphia’s inability to understand their job(s) is absolutely galling nightly. The Sixers embrace players who can’t shoot, leave good shooters to help less dangerous offensive players, and make a lot of crazy decisions as a team that indicate they’re not being properly prepared by those on the front lines on the sidelines.
That’s a much bigger charge against Doc Rivers than all that rotation stuff, the big backup decisions, or basically anything else. Supposedly smart players who were part of the senior defense, guys like Danny Green, do dumb stuff game after game after game. I can only assume that they are told to do wrong and bad things because the opposite doesn’t make much sense.
• Georges Niang was absolutely terrible in that game. There is no further analysis to add beyond that.
• It was pretty obvious the Sixers didn’t give a damn about this game and if it did, they’d be better off resting their boys and not risking injuries to their best players.
the ugly
• NBC’s accounting team is so used to Matisse Thybulle blocking Springer that they actively give him credit for other people’s plays. James Harden made an excellent defensive play to block a corner shooter early Thursday night and Kate Scott credited Thybulle for the play although he was nowhere near it. No dig at Scott, just a fun by-product of expectations — Harden can do plays sometimes, too.
• I’m all for tearing up DeAndre Jordan when he sucks, which happens quite often, but in the first half there were people who piled him up for Detroit by scoring a few points on the edge against the bench unit. On many of those, Jordan guarded backup big and floor spacer Kelly Olynyk to the three-point line, and the Pistons mauled Philly’s guards and wings with back cuts that Jordan basically has nothing to do with.
Choose your battles is all I’m saying. There are more than enough ways to kill Jordan, Rivers, and everyone else when they actually deserve it. For example, the second half was a great example of how bad Jordan is.
• When we watched the Sixers play the Pistons earlier this season, Cade Cunningham had some brief flashes but still looked like a guy trying to find his footing and figure out the tempo of an NBA game. He couldn’t have looked more confident in Thursday night’s game, controlling the pace and the ball with a vet’s composure. Super impressive kid and I’m excited to see what he looks like as the Pistons will likely have even more talent by his side in the years to come.
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