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Sixers’ Tendency to Play Down to the Competition Was on Full Display in a Putrid Home Loss to the Nuggets’ G Leaguers
By Sean Barnard
Published:
The Philadelphia 76ers entered Monday’s matchup with the Nuggets with the momentum of a three-game winning streak and a prime chance to add to it. Denver had accepted the matchup as a scheduled loss, with an average of 118.3 points per game sidelined due to injury or rest, as they played in the second half of a road/road back-to-back.
But the organizational tendency of the Sixers to play down to their competition and sleepwalk through these matchups resurfaced. The Nuggets produced a 125-124 overtime win with Penn State product Jalen Pickett leading the way with 29 points. Philadelphia’s lack of intensity was evident in the early minutes, as Denver jumped out to an 11-2 lead, and they failed to capitalize on the numerous chances to take full control and secure a victory.
This is a nice wake-up call after the vibes had been sky-high in the Sixers’ world. They moved to 2-0 against the Knicks in the previous game, defeated the Mavericks by 15 the game before, and outlasted the Grizzlies in a 139-136 overtime win before this on a VJ Edgecombe buzzer-beater. Last night also marked the first time all season that Joel Embiid played four consecutive games. He still is not the prime version of himself, but there has been some clear improvement in his movement on the court and some throwback flashes of his old self.
For all the prior accusations of Embiid ducking Nikola Jokic, it was the Sixers’ MVP who was active on the floor this time. Embiid finished with a season-high 40:03 minutes played and added 32 points and 10 rebounds, but turned the ball over six times. Jokic missed his fourth consecutive game with a bone bruise that is expected to keep him out at least a month. If the shoe was on the other foot in this equation, Embiid would surely hear plenty of criticism for “ducking” the battle of the two best centers in the NBA. This extended injury absence will also make Jokic’s outlook for reaching 65-games and becoming MVP-eligible a bit cloudy, which has also changed the tune of this being the rule for remaining eligible for postseason awards.
The final made basket in this game, unfortunately, resulted from a Bruce Brown lay-up attempt that Embiid was a fraction of a second late on and called for a goal tend. On the positive side of things, it is encouraging to see Embiid trust his body to make and execute on this type of athletic effort play, especially after playing a season-high in minutes. It is also not surprising to see Nuggets fans celebrating this play with such lengthy victory laps online, as seeing a center attempt to make any form of defensive play particularly above the rim has not occurred on their roster in over a decade:
More concerning was the crunch time outlook for the Sixers. Despite this team finding themselves in down-to-the-wire matchups on seemingly a nightly basis, the foundation of what the Sixers’ offense should look like in these stretches is still a work in progress. After having a chance to get a win following this goal tend, Tyrese Maxey was unable to knock down an awkward floater over an outstretched Zeke Nnaji as the clock hit zero:
The Sixers are tied for the second-most clutch games this season with 23. Clutch games are defined as those in which the point difference is five or fewer points during the final five minutes of the matchup. Philadelphia is 13-10 in these opportunities, with a +1.4 plus/minus across the total sample size. They’re posting a 111.9 offensive rating, a 98.2 defensive rating, a +13.7 net rating, and 97.93 pace. They’re holding opponents to 38.9% shooting from the field and 31.6% from the floor in clutch minutes.
For reference, looking at the full stats on the season, the Sixers are posting a 114.9 offensive rating, a 114.0 defensive rating, a 0.9 net rating, and 100.20 pace. The defensive improvement in these crunch-time minutes is incredibly encouraging. On the larger scale of the season, defense has been a massive concern. While there are still things that need to get better, primarily Embiid’s impact as the anchor, it has felt like the defense is not as bad as the raw numbers indicate. A more accurate representation is that every team the Sixers play makes a conscious effort to use Embiid’s movement limitations against the Sixers by pushing the pace as much as possible, and this dilutes some of these metrics. If their top-end defense potential is in the range of what these clutch games indicate, that is extremely encouraging.
But the larger theme that has grown concerning is the crunch time offense. There have been stretches of games where the Sixers have absolutely found an offensive rhythm through direct plays called by Nick Nurse. This baseline set the Sixers spammed against the Knicks is a good example of the team maximizing the skillset of each player and having some different looks to come off of it:
Too often this year it’s felt like the Sixers’ crunch-time offensive strategy has simply been tospace the floor and allow players to attack in isolation. Nurse has not consistently created advantages at the rate you would hope, particularly in these one-possession situations. He’s been a bit overly eager to keep his timeouts in his pocket and allow his players to attack as they see fit. Shoutout to Liberty Ballers’ Erin Grugan for compiling the side-by-side, but the Sixers went with the same play at the end of the fourth quarter that they did in the win over the Grizzlies. Unfortunately, last night, the result was Maxey dribbling it off itself and being forced to launch up a prayer:
These are tough situations for Nurse, especially given the level of roster inconsistency that he has dealt with. He is still figuring out exactly what he has with this team in the same way everyone else is as a viewer. But what is a more fair critique was the decision to bench Paul George down the stretch of last night’s game. The max contract forward was taken out with 7:25 remaining, with the Sixers trailing by four. He returned with 1:42 remaining and the score still a four-point difference, after Nurse elected to play the double-big lineup with Adem Bona and Embiid.
There are certain matchups where this can be advantageous, and this is an option that Nurse should keep in his back pocket. But in a game where the Sixers won the rebounding battle anyway, and Bona committed a bad foul on a three-point shooter in the home stretch, it was the wrong button to push. George has had some ups-and-downs of his own and still has not been the player his contract states he should be. But the larger conversations should be complimentary of his willingness and ability to fill a role on this Sixers team, with his impact an overall net positive. It is difficult to be too critical of Nurse based on how much roster movement and injury issues he has dealt with. But a good coach should be capable of stealing a couple of wins throughout an NBA season with their decision-making, and Nurse’s body of work is a bit absent of this in Philadelphia. Last night felt like the first true time this season, it felt like he was outclassed in the coaching matchup, and the team suffered because of it.
The more things change, the more they stay the same for the Sixers. Right when it feels like the organization is turning the corner and approaching things like a serious franchise, they put forth a performance like this to make you reevaluate. This has been a theme for years, where the Sixers can go toe-to-toe with a championship contender on any given night. But they also are completely capable of being blown off the floor against a team whose leading available scorer is averaging just 12.2 points per game, as was the case last night.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.