Never a dull moment in a Sixers game.

Last night we had a melee in the middle of a blowout, one that featured a Ted Nugent-style stranglehold from Ben Simmons, who was one of myriad peacekeepers who thrust themselves between Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns.

But let’s talk about the actual basketball game first.

More than anything, the Sixers hit their shots last night, 43 of 92 overall (47%) and 9-25 from three (36%) while knocking down 22 of 28 free throws (79%). That’s nice distribution, actually the fewest three pointers they’ve taken this season but the second time they’ve actually hit above 35% from downtown.

It’s gonna be a bit of a “feeling out” situation when it comes to the three ball this year. They fired away in Atlanta because the shots were there, but this team is so big that they really can pound the paint, get inside, and draw fouls at will.

Through four games, this is where the Sixers stand in total attempts on the following shots:

  • 32.3 three pointers per game (16th)
  • 55.8 two pointers per game (14th)
  • 29.8 free throws per game (7th)
  • 53.2 points in the paint (2nd)

That’s a nice mix, a good balance of three-point shooting with a ton of paint looks that result in frequent trips to the foul line.

I felt like last night was a good exercise in blending all of that together, which lead to a 117 point effort even with Joel Embiid getting tossed in the third quarter.

Damage mitigation and adding possessions

I’m gonna give you two stats that tell the story of the game:

  • Both teams committed 22 turnovers, but the Sixers only conceded 12 points off those mistakes while Minnesota conceded 29 points.
  • The Sixers had 30 second-chance points on the strength of 16 offensive rebounds.

To the latter point first, Philly just crushed Minnesota on the boards, 56 to 34. That always makes up for lost possessions, which resulted in a 92-81 shot disparity for the Sixers last night even both teams committed the same amount of turnovers.

And if you do give the ball away, you can limit damage by getting back in transition and responding appropriately. The Sixers did that well last night when committing live ball turnovers.

Said Brett Brown on that:

The turnover abundance still is haunting, you’re not gonna do anything that matters unless you fix that. That’s the bottom line. That’s the bad news. The good news is that our transition defense after the turnovers was exceptional. I mean I think they had 12 points on 22 turnovers, which is a tiny relative number for that volume. So it starts with trying to help our two All-Stars, Ben and Joel, with this mission to try to reduce turnovers. You’re gonna see that there are other participants in this ugly category that we need to fix. If you remove that I’d give our offense a thumbs up.

I asked Brett about those 30 second-chance points off the offensive boards:

See, to me there’s two areas that (explain) the game. If you look at our points after we turned them over, which I think is 29, then to your point, 30 points on second-chance points, when you talk about how we utilize height and how we exploit size, it’s part of the “smashmouth bully ball” thing that we are trying to get better at. That 30-point crashing of the boards and 29 points off of their turnovers, you’d have a hard time going someplace else when you talk about significant stats that helped us win.

And a final quote on this topic from Al Horford:

Too many turnovers for us. We definitely need to be better in that area. At home I feel like you can mask some stuff, but when we get on the road we need to be much better. And yeah, I think those things that hurt us, I think our effort to get back in transition to load up, to make them score through us, I thought that was an outstanding effort from our group.

It’s always something to think about when you’re cruising Twitter and you see people argue about turnovers. “Brett Brown doesn’t care about turnovers,” right? That’s the narrative, and while there’s some truth to it, it’s really more about how many points you concede off those turnovers that matters.

For example, let’s just pick some random numbers, but if the Sixers are 22nd in turnovers, but only conceding the 18th most points off turnovers, then the damage is mitigated. If they are getting back and “loading up,” as Horford explains, then that’s what you’re looking for always.

Here’s a simple example of how the Sixers did a good job of getting back last night after committing a live ball turnover:

Bad kick out pass from Ben Simmons, who lands on a Timberwolf and takes both guys out of the play. Karl-Anthony Towns for some reason tries to dribble up the floor, but Matisse Thybulle gets the swipe as Josh Richardson recovers to rejoin Embiid and Mike Scott. Basic concepts, but important nonetheless.

So you get back, limit the damage off turnovers, and then regain lost possessions via steals and offensive rebounding, which helps you shoot 10 more shots than the opposing team. That’s sort of been the formula over the last three seasons and it’s how the Sixers typically “mask” the problem, to Horford’s point.

The brawl

We got a lot of good post game quotes regarding the brouhaha. Of course Embiid went on Twitter at two in the morning to rip Karl-Anthony Towns and call him a pussy, so there was also that.

First, give yourself a refresher on what went down:

Ben Simmons got Towns with what looked like an MMA-style rear-naked choke, pinning him to the ground in an effort to defuse the situation. After the game, officials confirmed what we all knew, that Ben wasn’t instigating but was instead keeping the peace by holding KAT on the ground:

NBA Referee Mark Ayotte

Q: What led to the determination of an ejection for both players?

Ayotte: We deemed the altercation a fight. Therefore, by rule, they’re both ejected.

Q: Is there anything you saw that started the altercation? Did either player do anything to provoke the other player in your eyes?

Ayotte: No, I just saw them each lock arms. And that escalated to the fight.

Q: Did you rule that Ben Simmons was trying to break up the fight when he had Towns on the ground?

Ayotte: Yes, we deemed him a peacemaker.

Embiid provided a plethora of quotes on the situation, which I’ve transcribed for your pleasure:

What happened?

I don’t know, I felt like you could say a lot of things, the previous three possessions in the post I kind of got it the way I wanted to, then I guess the last possession we got him to turn the ball over and my hand was tangled up. Next thing I know he’s holding me, we’re holding each other. But it’s basketball; that’s what I’m good at, I like to get in people’s minds and I like to (have) that real estate, but it’s the game. We just having fun, playing basketball and then something like that is nothing.

How much talking was going on?

Well first of all I ain’t no bitch (laughs). So nah there was not a lot of talking. It kind of happened out of nowhere and I just did what I had to do. I was trying to control myself and it happens.

It didn’t look like he connected..

He didn’t connect. Those types of situations you never know what’s gonna happen. He threw it and didn’t connect. I don’t know, maybe it would have turned into something more if he did connect, but like I said, we just move on.

You don’t show up wanting to get into a fight, but what can you say about how your teammates reacted?

I know my guys came. I know they have my back. If it was anybody on the team I know they would be there to make sure things were straight. That’s what I love about this team. We love each other and love playing with each other. We have each other’s backs. It goes beyond basketball. It’s great to see and it goes a long way.

On pumping up the crowd after walking off:

Going into this season I said I wanted to stay away from all of that, but like I said before, I never start anything, I always react and I guess it always finds me, but I was built for this city, and they were built for me. My reaction, their reaction, and the love they have for me, I can’t thank them enough. I really appreciate all of the love. It’s crazy. That type of reaction was probably the loudest I’ve ever heard them. And I heard MVP chants from the locker room. That’s what the city of Philadelphia is out. You gotta come in here and fight and play hard, be gritty, be a Broad Street Bully, that’s what it’s about.

Are you worried about a suspension?

I didn’t throw any punches. All I did was try to be as cool as I could. I shouldn’t get suspended but they have a history of overruling anything that comes to me in a certain way, so hopefully they overrule in the right way, but I don’t expect it.

Yeah, I’m not sure personally. There are shots going around that show Joel getting away with a nasty eye poke during the scrum, which may or may not have been intentional since both guys were just sort of struggling in the clinch. Embiid could have been just trying to push off with his hand, or the gouge could have been purposeful. Only he knows, but we’ll see how the NBA rules on this:

Doesn’t look great.

Other notes:

  • Same thing with the early rotation – Matisse Thybulle and James Ennis off the bench first, then Furkan Korkmaz and Mike Scott. Furkan had a nice game.
  • Robert Covington got a nice ovation when he was introduced. Just a bit of booing coming from section 119. He had a terrible game.
  • Miles Sanders rang the bell.
  • Matisse Thybulle blocked a first quarter shot while facing away from his man. He just basically threw his hand up in the air and came up with the block. It was wild.
  • Joe Girardi was in the house. He’s actually kind of short, which I didn’t realize. He was barely taller than Serena Winters.
  • Andrew Wiggins had a few opportunities to go at Korkmaz 1v1 and didn’t do anything with them. He settled for a pull up three on one sequence, then fouled Korkmaz on a three at the other end. Later he airballed a 25 footer.
  • Ennis always converts on some scrappy hustle plays. It’s never pretty with him, but you’ll take every offensive board and putback you can get. He had five on the offensive glass.
  • Brett Brown challenged a charge on Tobias Harris and it was not overturned. The challenge so far has been pretty sad in the NBA. They aren’t overturning anything at all.

Happy Thursday: