If you didn’t watch that game but simply logged into Twitter around 10:30 p.m. last night, you would have thought the Sixers lost.

Boban was injured, the entire squad couldn’t throw the ball into the nearby Gulf of Mexico, and Brett Brown again found himself featured heavily on social media.

But they did win. They won on the road without Joel Embiid, and whatever the other circumstances are, I think you’ll take that above all else.

So let’s scrap the first 46 minutes and just go straight to the end of the game. Let’s scrap the traditional observations post and just focus on what happened in the final two minutes. Let’s talk about play calls, subs, free throws, and all of that stuff, stuff that everybody is yelling about this morning.

We’ll pick it up with 1:48 on the clock, Sixers leading 110-104 with the ball.

Here’s the first offensive possession:

Nothing wrong with that possession at all. It’s a 35 pick and roll, small forward and center, and Jimmy Butler gets a pretty good look on the floater, he just can’t hit.

After the miss, the Sixers failed to get out in transition and Jrue Holiday hit a three pointer to cut the lead to three.

On the ensuing possession, the Sixers went to their bread and butter late game set, the 12 pick and roll with JJ Redick and Ben Simmons, after the jump:

Clean look and another miss.

We’ve talked about this play a lot. They go to it frequently at the end of games, same play they used to beat San Antonio and also successfully close out Denver. There are multiple actions coming out of this low/high pick and roll, and if the defense blows the switch or non-switch, then Ben Simmons can get a free run to the rim.

I don’t know if I necessarily like the starting position sometimes, however. That’s a wide open look for Redick, but it’s a low-efficiency mid-range jumper right inside the three-point line. We could really devote an entire article to this call, because they use it so often.

The defensive possession after this was the Boban steal and injury, which caused a delay in the game, then the Sixers went back to the 35 PNR, this time with Mike Scott coming in for Marjanovic:

Jimmy gets the switch there and even draws a double team for a second before Elfrid Payton slides back to Scott.

He could have dished it back, but instead takes Diallo further down and steps back for a 17 footer and a miss. We’ve seen him hit that type of shot a ton of times before and it’s not the worst look in the world. I think you can live with that.

Next offensive possession, same play, 35 pick and roll:

Great defense by Diallo, good recovery and kick out from Butler to Scott, then over to Harris for the wide-open three.

Miss.

That would have probably iced the game there. Instead NOLA took a timeout with 21.7 seconds on the clock with the Sixers clinging to a three-point lead.

That took us to the nailbiting free-throw fest that ended the game, and here are my thoughts on what took place, in sequential order:

  1. On the first inbound, Mike Scott fouled Jrue Holiday way too quickly. With a foul to give, at least burn some clock before using that foul and see what play the Pelicans were going to run.
  2. On the next inbound, I’m not even convinced Jonathon Simmons fouled Holiday. Looked like a really iffy call to me with Holiday stumbling and falling rather easily, and you saw some confusion and complaining coming from the Sixers bench.
  3. At this point, with Holiday on the line, Brett Brown brought in Redick for J. Simmons.
  4. The Sixers inbounded the ball to Tobias Harris, who went on to only hit 1 of 2 free throws. Brown brought J. Simmons back in for Redick between these free throws.
  5. New Orleans, on their next possession, went for the quick two instead of trying a three-pointer, cutting the lead to 111-110 with 10.9 left on the clock.

Here’s where the scrutiny really comes in.

Instead of taking a timeout and making an offensive sub, Tobias Harris instead quickly inbounded the ball, which found the hands of Jonathon Simmons, a career 76% shooter. Simmons went on to miss both free throws.

Two different schools of thought here –

If you take the timeout:

  • You sub Redick in for J. Simmons. Redick is your best free throw shooter.
  • You can draw up an inbound play.
  • New Orleans resets their defense and can also sub.

If you don’t take the timeout:

  • J. Simmons stays on the floor.
  • New Orleans can’t set up their defense and they have to defend on the fly.
  • Ball comes out under the basket.
  • If NOLA can’t foul immediately, time comes off the clock.

So there are really just two different philosophies here. The former slows the game down and lets the coach micro-manage. The latter is the hands-off approach. And if Redick is shooting the free-throws, you can’t sub him off the floor to get your defensive personnel out there unless New Orleans has a timeout remaining, which they didn’t. JJ would have been on the floor for that final Pelicans possession.

I get the criticism, and it’s fair. I’m in the camp of people who would rather use a timeout there, get your best shooters on the floor, and go to the play sheet instead of just free styling with 9 seconds left on the clock. I’ve been on the record many times saying that I feel like Brett’s “hands off” approach in late game situations is more detrimental than helpful. If there’s anything he can do to help his team to the finish line, do it.

Beyond that, I saw a team last night that had multiple good looks to ice the game, and didn’t hit their shots, whether from the floor or the foul line. They ran a bunch of pick and rolls down the stretch, Butler and Harris couldn’t get anything to fall, and Jimmy saved his team with a clutch block on the final play.