Sixers

Road Wins and Amphibians – Observations from Sixers 108, Cavaliers 97

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 2nd, 2018 · 9:44 AM EST

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That game had a little bit of everything.

We saw a Dario Saric heel turn and apology. LeBron James (sort of) shoved a ref. Joel Embiid hit a silky baseline jawn. Chris Webber described Ben Simmons as an “amphibian.” The 6’10” point guard went for 18, 9, and 8. And Amir Johnson was having fun out there, shooting threes and driving to the rack.

I’ll admit that I went into our Slack chat sometime during the third quarter and said, “this game kind of sucks.” But we were treated to an entertaining 4th quarter, with a Cleveland comeback stifled by quality Sixers execution and defense.

For the most part, that was the story of the other three quarters, with balanced scoring complemented by an acceptable nine turnovers and propped up by a nice defensive effort. The Sixers held the Cavs to 97 points on their home floor, well below the 109.5 LeBron and company are averaging on the season. A 47% shooting team, Cleveland finished just above 41% last night and went 9-32 from three (28.1%). Philly had four steals and five blocks to go along with a +9 margin on the glass.

It was an entertaining preview of a possible 3/6 playoff series, something I’d really, really, REALLY, like to see in April.

Responding

The Sixers led by as many as 9 in the 4th quarter before Cleveland was able to tie it up at 85 with 5:22 remaining.

Here we go again! Fire Brett Brown!

As they’ve done in other recent games, the Sixers really buckled down in crunch time, immediately hitting their next three shots to re-establish the lead at 92-87.

On the second bucket, the Simmons dunk, I think they were trying to set up a Joel Embiid screen to free JJ Redick for a deep look, but Simmons found a seam in traffic and took it himself:

Flushed with authority! That’s a big bucket.

Then, coming out of a timeout, they ran almost the exact same thing, this time with Simmons leaving it for Embiid and Redick coming off the same screen to get a wide open shot:

https://youtu.be/Qj3XKcmuzCo?t=8m45s

This is all by design. They’re variations of the Sixers “horns” set, which basically features Simmons at the point, two high teammates above each elbow, and two low guys in the corners, creating a 3v3 game in the middle.

On the first play, Redick back screens Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson gets confused, and Simmons slides through for the drive:

And on the second one, after the timeout, they run the same set with Simmons dropping it off for Embiid and continuing to the rim:

Jordan Clarkson, who got ragged a minute earlier, is sagging to begin the play, because he doesn’t want to overplay Simmons and get burned again, right?

Hood again fights through the screen to switch onto Simmons, which is not reciprocated, leaving Cleveland in a 2v1 against Ben while Redick peels off the Embiid screen for a wide-open three:

It’s great execution, for real. One set, two looks, and five points. Brett Brown is shrewd enough to recognize the success of the first sequence and run it again with a different wrinkle coming out of a timeout. When Clarkson thinks the drive is coming, he’s woefully out of position to close down Redick, who has 7’2″ Embiid as a buffer.

The Sixers have improved drastically in this area, and they’ve now started to hammer down on some strong possessions after other teams claw their way back into the game.

Beyond that, they’re just hitting some tough shots down the stretch.

The Embiid 1v2 baseline fadeaway was just a product of him working the low post, where he sometimes has trouble with that late double team. Instead of passing out of it, he rolled away from it and hit a Kobe Bryant rainbow:

Joel Embiid 🔄 to extend the @sixers lead!#HereTheyCome 103 / #AllForOne 94 with 34 seconds remaining.

📺: @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/iyfFpXZbmp

— NBA (@NBA) March 2, 2018

After Cleveland tied the game, the Sixers shot 6-8 before finishing with two easy dunks, one which started a fight. They hit 2/4 free throws down the stretch with one turnover and a few sloppy fouls on the other end.

So it wasn’t flawless, but executing on smart sets is the catalyst to regain leads and snag a bunch of 4th-quarter wins.

Switching

I haven’t written much about this, and I’ll save it for a separate story, but the Sixers switch on defense a lot more than most NBA teams.

They can afford to do it since they have athleticism across the board, especially at the center position where Embiid can do things like this:

Wanna see why Embiid is the front runner for DPOY? pic.twitter.com/8vq7FTwJcr

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) March 2, 2018

I’ll sidebar that for another time, but just enjoy the video of Embiid hedging that screen, switching off, then recovering to slap away an alley oop.

Some other thoughts:

Ilyasova

He made his Sixer re-debut, coming in with 2:10 in the first quarter alongside Embiid, Redick, Robert Covington, and T.J. McConnell. It was like 2016 all over again.

Ersan finished with 6 points on 2-5 shooting but made some nice defensive plays, sliding to draw a charge in the first half and preventing a drive on another sequence. He’s always been good in that area, and once he gets resettled in Philly he’ll give you more on the offensive end.

As expected, his addition kept Richaun Holmes on the bench.

Amir Johnson

Good first half defense from Johnson, who finished with 6, 5, and a pair of blocks. He knocked down a three-pointer and even tried to drive to the rim from beyond the three-point arc.

He was just trying shit out there and seemed to be having a good time.

Cleveland uniforms

“The Land” is pretty dumb, yeah? And white text on gray uniforms?

Ehhhhhh………

Chris Webber

I’ll take him any day over Reggie Miller, but what was going on here?

Chris Webber's amphibious take on Ben Simmons is an all-time take. pic.twitter.com/bQtpWqPh15

— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) March 2, 2018

“I don’t know. Is this guy left handed? Is he right handed? Is he amphibious? What is it?”

He meant to say ambidextrous, right? Like, he’s able to use both hands..

…right?

An amphibian, according to the dictionary, is:

“a cold-blooded vertebrate animal of a class that comprises the frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders. They are distinguished by having an aquatic gill-breathing larval stage followed (typically) by a terrestrial lung-breathing adult stage”

So these are amphibians:

And this is an amphibious vehicle, one that can operate on land or in the water:

This is not an amphibian:

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher, USA Today Sports