The Sixers returned to Ben Simmons and Shake Milton back in training on Sunday, but the unfortunate shots and the night of Joel Embiid’s up and down cost them a 110-103 defeat to the Raptors.
This is what I saw.
The good
• The Sixers could have been turned down by the Raptors to start Sunday’s game, with Toronto choosing to go to a small lineup as a Philly-sized counterattack. Both for this plan: Ben Simmons grabbed the maximum intensity of the jump and the Raptors were forced to bring Aron Baynes into the game to play a more “traditional” lineup fairly quickly.
Simmons was the biggest surprise, ending with a two-game absence due to illness. He showed no persistent effect due to the dismissal, using stops that he created himself on defense to advance the pace soon, and forced the Raptors to foul him with aggressive catches on the edge. He had eight free-kick attempts at the break, which is a big number for many games Simmons has appeared, and added that number in the second half.
The change in mindset over the past few weeks has been noticeable, and while it didn’t have the same more than 40-point explosion we saw against Utah last week, this game was certainly more encouraging, as it was capable and willing to look for his looks despite having Embiid by his side and painting. He claims to have concentrated a lot of energy on the mental side of the game, and the rise in free throws suggests the job is paying dividends.
We begin to see Simmons approach the ideal version of himself, maintaining his outstanding defensive levels, while taking advantage of his physicality on offense better than at almost any time in his career (outside of last January). The change has been relatively straightforward in terms of execution (Simmons is only looking for his shot more in places where he was already arriving), but the impact has been profound.
• Rookie Isaiah Joe made a gesture with the rotation about Furkan Korkmaz, and I think it might be justified to give him at least the games during the All-Star break to see what he has. The most encouraging sign is that he has been a competent defender for the first year, despite some obvious physical limitations due to his frame. Joe does a good job sliding through traffic, reading where he needs to get to, and has been much better at tracking both his man and the ball as he walks away from the play than most novices.
As a general note on the rotation, Rivers finally made the switch to actively rock his two best players. Were it not for the Embiid-led lineups Sunday’s bleeding points (a pretty change from the normal state of affairs), it would have been the first positive data point of a change that many called for. They should continue to play with that, because the group of all the banks is tying now and will only look worse when they get to the playoffs.
I think the saying goes something like … trust the process?
The bad
• For much of the night, I thought Joel Embiid was better than his stats suggested, in part because his teammates did a bad job taking advantage of the open looks he created for them. Toronto sent pressure waves and hard doubles to Embiid during the first half, and I thought he had one of his best passing halves despite recording just one assist. He scattered passes all over the ground (cross-track to the corner, tap passing from the post) and his shooters did not charge or refused to open their eyes open.
Over time, however, Toronto’s defense ended up affecting the big one, and he returned to some bad habits that he has managed to avoid for a long time this season. Instead of relying on his teammates to shoot (no easy task on a stinky night), Embiid began forcing shots and trying to splash the traffic too much. It was a cold filming night to boot and with these few nights this year, it’s not worth losing sleep.
Still, I don’t need to tell you how important double management is and how we can still see silver linings on a bad night. It is crucial that Embiid be able to punish the doubles from different points on the ground, giving way to the race at home so that they do not depend on the chain of swinging steps to get the eventual three open. As we’ve seen with Toronto at times, good defensive groups can put out fires faster, and if you don’t make passes that actively tense defenders, they’ll eventually force you to reset.
The Sixers will see a lot of defenses like this on the road. Whether the choice is between living and dying with a single coverage defense or forcing the ball from your hands with doubles, is an easy decision for opponents. It bodes well for the future that already looks so good in the face of pressure if you consider the amount of adventures you had in years past.
Unfortunately, he had the worst filming performance of the year, which ended many of the good things he did. That’s how the game is sometimes, even if you’re just spending a 50-point night.
• Schematically, there were a lot of decessions and misreadings made on the defensive side of the ball for Philly. Embiid was visibly upset on several occasions on Sunday because the boys didn’t do the rotation he thought they should have, and that often ended with a three open in Toronto. They have a lot of guys who can punish you when you’re not committed to closing and that allowed the Raptors to outperform the double-digit Sixers by two halves.
Embiid was uncomfortable with the soggy pitch as he couldn’t move the ball around with his usual grace. While he had between 5 and 10 outstanding plays as a tire protector against Toronto, he was also the victim of a good job in Fred Van Vleet’s pick-and-roll, with Aron Baynes looking for pitches after Embiid was trapped too high. It’s an area where he still feels things after spending his entire career so far covered off.
(By the way, Dwight Howard should probably read the scan report before the next game. He can’t play against Chris Boucher.)
• It was Matisse Thybulle’s turn to rock the swing on Sunday night, with the sophomore wing stinking after a long positive basketball career. A little hard to bother too much considering how important he’s been off the bench lately, but for him it was just as ugly.
Was there a bit of “chicken or egg?” with its horrible plus / minus. On the one hand, Thybulle was the victim of Embiid’s worst possessions at the offensive end of the field, with Toronto hitting a bunch of open trios that were the result of bad post-up attempts and inadvisable shots from mid-range. On the other hand, part of the reason Embiid threw hard shots and turned the ball around is that the Raptors had the power to put extra pressure on Embiid whenever Thybulle was on the ground.
Teams just don’t care if they get open shots right now, and that has the potential to kill their viability to complete playoff time. When he’s not sensational on defense, he doesn’t offer much.
• The Sixers can’t be reprimanded for their three-point volume on Sunday, which is an improvement over many recent games, but hey, this team has quality changes from the depths. His hot, cold streaks seem to be very slow and the first half was a miserable, icy run from beyond the bow.
Philadelphia’s 4/17 score of three in the first half seemed to outweigh his ability to make shots. I would venture to assume that about 75 percent of their tricks were absolutely open and often came from the hands of Philadelphia’s top shooters: Seth Curry, Shake Milton, and Tobias Harris went through stretches where they couldn’t buy any. although, in Milton’s case, he would eventually bounce back in the second half.
As we have commented throughout the year, dam they are half the battle. Harris and Curry were the two worst offenders (which seems crazy to say given their total dirty attempts), coming out of open eyes and rescuing the Raptors on several occasions. When you work hard to create space in the first place, you can’t just return to your opponent for no good reason. I’d rather Harris shoot them with a game than trigger the clock.
• Overall scoring droughts were deadly for Philly on Sunday, causing problems or not. You won’t win many (if any) games in which you can’t score a single bucket for more than seven minutes.
The ugly
• Tobias Harris, who is missing at least five open triples, definitely qualifies here. Hard night for him.
• Danny Green makes at least one turnover per game, in which I have to wonder if he plays the same game as the rest. Passes are thrown at someone who is open in another dimension, I guess, because it certainly can’t be this one.
• Doc Rivers wanted to leave Furkan Korkmaz on Sunday night’s rotation, which I think is the right call, and rookie Isaiah Joe showed some good lightning while he was there. Unfortunately for Rivers, Matisse Thybulle found a way to catch three fouls in about five minutes of time in the first half, so Korkmaz returned to the court on the court.
It looks like Rivers could have played almost anyone else on the team, including an extra cross, and made the most of the minutes he got from Korkmaz. His shots weren’t close, his defensive readings were a complete disaster, and Joe will likely look expanded if current trends are maintained.
• I have no idea what the officials were doing on Sunday evening. The boys were pounding and not throwing a whistle, only to ask for a cheap one at the other end of the floor, and then the dynamic would turn around, leaving everyone upset and in a state of confusion as to how focus the game.
Technically it’s supposed to call things “according to the book” as official, but consistent application is the real key. Whenever you make it clear that boys may or may not play physically or establish a firm line that they cannot cross, players will settle for a rhythm. This game was largely a mess unknown for its way of being called.
• There are losses that are worth over-analyzing and drawing long-term conclusions. It just seemed like a weird game of the regular season.
Follow Kyle on Twitter: @KyleNeubeck
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Subscribe to “The New Slant” podcast by Kyle’s Sixers at apple, Google, i Spotify