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What if I told you that the Sixers would open the season shooting 38% from the floor and 2-13 from the three point line?

And what if I told you that Joel Embiid would leave game one with five fouls at the 10:46 mark in the fourth quarter, and never return?

That’s a set of circumstances that you’d think would represent another disappointing home loss to the Celtics, but it didn’t. The Sixers instead rode a stout defensive performance to a 14-point win, handling a Boston squad that had given them fits in the past.

For the most part, we saw the “smash mouth, bully ball” type of style that Brett Brown espoused at his preseason media luncheon. The Sixers looked stale in the half court, really clunky and static as they struggled to get the offense going during the first couple of quarters. Eventually they settled in, started moving in transition, hammered Boston on the boards, and feasted at the free throw line when outside shots weren’t falling. They blocked seven shots, ripped off six steals, and held the Celtics to a 36.7% shooting night, effectively clamping down on a smaller and more mobile opponent.

“Had we not have done that, we would have lost,” said Brett Brown of the rebounding effort. “On offense, we missed a lot of shots. I loved the fact that we got to the free-throw line as much as we did and I liked the war of attrition. We were trying to play as physical as we could and put them in foul trouble. Had our defense not been our defense, we might have seen a different result. Our defense, in large, was what I had hoped.”

I like that word, “attrition.” The Sixers are built to debase other teams over time with a constant and sustained pressure. They will wear other squads down with defense and rebounding, and while it might not be pretty at times, it’s going to be effective.

Defense wins season openers

I remember a Boston home game last year where Brad Stevens went after JJ Redick on something like three straight plays. The Celtics always did a nice job of identifying mismatches and then exploiting them repeatedly, but I didn’t see that last night because I don’t think there’s a mismatch out there.

The Sixers did a really nice job with their on-ball defense last night, getting their hands up, bodying the opponent, and just staying in front of dribble-drives.

I was particularly impressed with Josh Richardson’s ability to slide around picks and just detach himself. He’s a slippery guy out there, hard to screen and remove from a play.

Sequences like this stood out to me:

That’s 6’5″ Richardson switching onto a power forward and being screened by a center. Still, he’s good enough to go over the top of the screen, keep Gordon Hayward off the three-point line, and then get the block on the rear contest with Al Horford sitting in zone. That’s really good stuff all around.

Richardson did not have a fantastic shooting night, but he was matched up on Kemba Walker frequently and Kemba finished 4-18 with just 12 points.

Said Brett Brown on that:

“There were a few other people that had opportunities on Kemba Walker, but if you look at his stat line, you would attribute a lot of that to Josh. Even some of the offensive plays that he made, the defense is what stands out to us the most, and it’s true for me to. He made some timely plays offensively and he just is that wired and elusive type of player that, as I’ve been saying, makes him a significant part of the glue to the team.”

Defense first, always.

Ben Simmons – to shoot or drive?

Ben Simmons was given this look in the first half.

Do you think he shot this ball or drove into a crowd? –

Answer:

He drove right into Hayward, muscled his way underneath, and hit a really tough turnaround layup.

Check it out how this sequence played out:

Ben shot one jumper last night, a turn around from 10 feet in the fourth quarter after a reset offensive possession in which he called for a clear out instead.

For the most part, Simmons was the typically aggressive guy we saw last year, getting downhill and attacking and moving well in transition. That really got the team going, and they needed it because the half court offense really was not clicking at all in the first two quarters. Ben’s ability to drive and get to the rim got him a team-high 24 points and really changed the dynamic of the game.

So when I see plays like the one above and consider how Simmons approached the season opener, it just makes me think that the three-point shot is not going to be a thing, at least not right off the bat. He was given space to shoot last night and decided to drive instead, typically with good results. Twice he was called for offensive fouls and that’s the extent of the negative that I saw from his decision to just get downhill and be assertive.

The rotation

First off the bench: Matisse Thybulle and James Ennis, coming in for Joel Embiid and Josh Richardson, giving us a lineup of:

  1. Ben Simmons
  2. Thybulle
  3. Ennis
  4. Tobias Harris
  5. Al Horford

That group played for a bit, then Furkan Korkmaz was next off the bench, replacing Thybulle, who picked up two quick fouls, one a rookie mistake with a rear contest on a Walker three-pointer (then a third foul on a similar scenario in the second quarter).

The next batch substitution saw Mike Scott enter with Embiid and Richardson, resulting in this:

  1. Richardson
  2. Korkmaz
  3. Ennis
  4. Scott
  5. Embiid

Interesting to see Furkan Korkmaz that high in the rotation and point Richardson preferred to both Trey Burke and Raul Neto. Kyle O’Quinn came in during the fourth quarter.

I asked Brown after the game why he decided to go with Richardson as his backup ball handler and if that meant anything for Burke and Neto moving forward:

“It was driven just defensively. There will be a place, they are both really talented, and they’re different. Raul and Trey, albeit small point guards, are different. I think for me it was driven defensively, to be able to roll out 6’6″, 6’8″, 6’9″, 7’2″, then start coming in with Matisse and James Ennis and Mike Scott. There’s a flavor defensively that is extremely attractive to me. It was driven through that motive more than anything else. Those two did nothing wrong. It was defensively driven.”

‘There’s a flavor defensively that is extremely attractive to me.’

Great quote, makes me hungry actually.

As far as playing Furkan Korkmaz, which surprised me and others, Brown said that he needs to “grow a bomber,” somebody who can come in and shoot three pointers off the bench. It’s certainly true; they do need three-point shooting, and Korkmaz did hit a big three during the third quarter run that helped open the game up. More importantly, he didn’t look too out of place defensively, and seemed to hold his own for the 20 minutes he was out there.

The challenge

Brett Brown got annoyed at the beginning of the third quarter, during a stretch when the Sixers had pushed their lead to four points, so he called timeout and challenged a foul call on Joel Embiid, which he did not win:

It looked like a Walker slip in real time, but when you watch that second angle again, he sort of trips over Embiid’s outstretched foot. Weird play, since they’re both just trying to plant on the same spot, which makes it look a bit innocuous and awkward.

Either way, Brown lost a timeout and Embiid was given his second personal foul.

During the challenge, the Sixers played a “name as many rappers as you can” game between Tobias Harris and Al Horford. Each guy named Nas and Jay-Z as their first two rappers, and proceeded to name zero mumble rappers. Great job by them only naming good rappers instead of shitty rappers.

Other notes:

  • Al Horford rang the bell pregame. Symbolic gesture right there, little bit of a troll job, and something he says he was asked to do Tuesday afternoon.
  • Walker I thought was lucky to get away without that technical foul after picking up his second personal midway through the first quarter, then complaining to the refs.
  • The Sixers showed full court press out of that timeout in the 3rd quarter and got an eight-second violation against Boston.
  • James Ennis had some loose handles and disappointing sequences last night. He was a -12 on the night.
  • Turnovers weren’t a killer last night, but the Sixers did look sloppy again in that department, especially in the first half.
  • Richardson was asked about the vibe at the arena and noted that the fans showed up on time, which was NOT the case in Miami. People down there are notoriously late for everything. I think they show up at the club at midnight.
  • Joel Embiid didn’t speak postgame because of the elbow he took to the face, he cut his lip and had doctors looking at it
  • Only 44 points in the paint for Boston. They settled for a lot of mid-range junk early.
  • Brett Brown’s New England accent resulted in him saying “Kemberr Walker” before the game. It was fantastic.
  • There were four Boston fans sitting behind media row with terrible accents.
  • I counted three “ref you suck” chants.