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13 straight home wins to begin the season.

Not bad at all for the Sixers, who improved to 18-7 last night with a five-point win against a good Denver team. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is actually the team’s best home start since 1966, when they began 22-0 at home en route to a 68-13 record and NBA title. Not sure this team is at the same level, but it’s a nice statistic.

It was also the 10th time the Sixers have held an opponent below 100 points this season, 10 games resulting in 10 wins. Neither team shot particularly well from three last night, but Philly got a 34-point bench performance while benefiting from an early injury to Jamal Murray, which knocked him out of the game.

Brett Brown on remaining unbeaten at home:

It feels good, but I’d be lying if I told you that it comes with overconfidence. I just see all the areas that we can get better in. To truly feel the way that I feel and be undefeated with 13 wins at home is good, I suppose. It’s a great place to play and we have a fantastic crowd.

Denver scored seven points in the game’s seven final minutes, so that certainly helps. Credit the Sixers for their defense on Tuesday night, on national television. It was a bit like watching one of those Penn State/Iowa football barn burners from years past, where the defenses are playing at a high level while the offenses leave something to be desired.

Second chance and fast break points

Maybe the difference in the game, these two categories. The Sixers won in second chance points 16-4 while creating a 19-9 margin on the break, so if you add those two together it resulted in a 35-13 scoring gap that ultimately allowed the Sixers to play in front for most of the night.

Philly won the battle on the offensive boards, 12 to 5, and when you factor in turnovers for both teams (15 for Phila and 13 for Denver), the Sixers ended up shooting four more field goals, which is one of their strengths this season.

If you over to the NBA stats page, you find that Brett Brown’s team is 26th in the league with 86.1 field goal attempts per game. Not amazing, but if you flip the number and look at opponent field goal attempts, they are only allowing 84 per game, which is 2nd best in the league.

Doing the math then, 86.1 minus 84 equals 2.1, so the Sixers are still getting more shots up on a nightly basis due to their rebounding and defense, which is a formula that will continue to win them games.

Josh Richardson

Played a little less than 20 minutes in his return to action after missing six games with a bum hammy.

He shot 1-8 last night, and the Sixers’ starting lineup didn’t exactly look like a well-oiled machine, but his one bucket was a timely three-pointer that put his team up by 10 with about nine minutes remaining.

Looking through the matchup data, Denver players only took four shots when guarded by Richardson, knocking down two of them. Josh found himself covering a variety of players, but spent the most time facing Will Barton and Gary Harris, who were 2-3 from the floor on those possessions.

Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid

Their lines on the evening:

  • Embiid: 8-18, 0-3 from three, 6-7 from the foul line, 22 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 3 personal fouls
  • Simmons: 3-6, 0-1 from three (a half court heave), 1-4 from the foul line, 7 points, 7 assists, 9 rebounds, 1 steal, 3 personal fouls

Good scoring night early for Joel, then he cooled off a bit. You’d like to see him get to the foul line somewhere in the 8-10 times per game range.

He said this about being the go-to guy late:

I’m not doing good enough. I’m still getting used to the whole season and I’m still trying to adjust. Obviously, it is not the same as last year, so the adjustment has been hard, but I am going to do what ever I’m asked to do every single night.

How do you parse that quote? It’s open to interpretation.

As for Simmons, he had another one of those games where he looked great at times running the floor, and then on other occasions he would get close to the rim and defer, instead of just taking that extra step to get to the rack or just pulling up from short range instead.

Two of his four turnovers came on those sort of “no man’s land” type of possessions, which I’ve clipped here:

Really frustrating watching those. Ben has a LeBron James type of ceiling, swear to God, it’s just about pulling that last bit of aggression and confidence out of him. It’s definitely in there.

Stop, hammer time

Spotted a bit of creativity from Brett Brown last night, and unless I’ve been snoozing, I don’t think I’ve seen them run this play before, at least not this season.

But there was a stretch in the second quarter when the Sixers were struggling with turnovers, so he dialed up what’s known as “hammer action,” which is a San Antonio concept that frees up a weak side player for a corner three point look. They executed it very poorly, but watch anyway:

Bad pass from Simmons, and the timing is off, but you see what they are trying to do there. It’s a UCLA cut to get Simmons on the low block, then the back screen from Mike Scott frees up Furkan Korkmaz on the weak side, but the timing is way off.

Here’s the concept:

No, it didn’t come off, but I like that they’re trying some different things, taking a look at different sets and plays and trying to expand on the offensive side. Most of the Sixers’ offense this season has just been post up/post up/post up, and that’s fine when they’re successfully identifying mismatches, but sometimes a bit of inorganic play calling helps loosen things up.

Other notes:

  • Matisse Thybulle continues to play at a high level. 20 points Sunday night, 13 last night with a 3-4 mark from deep.
  • 2-6 three point shooting night from Mike Scott, who is now three games removed from his slump
  • Moved back to the bench, Furkan played about 17 minutes and had six points on 2-4 shooting, all four looks coming from deep.
  • Not a great night for Al Horford, who finally started hitting a bit in the second half.
  • James Ennis again grabbed an offensive rebound he had no business getting. You see at least one of those per game.
  • Nikola Jokic only tried 13 shots all game long. He didn’t shoot once in the 1st quarter. That was a boon for the Sixers, and Mike Malone said after the game he should have gotten his center more looks.
  • 11-16 from the foul line isn’t going to cut it on most nights; typically they have to get there more often, and then shoot better than 69%

Have a fantastic day. The weather is again beautiful in the Delaware Valley.