LeBron James directs the offense during the Sixers’ win over the Indiana Pacers. [Reuters]
Good morning, Philadelphia.
Tonight’s game will mean a little more than the others have thus far.
Sure, the Sixers went into New York and stole some of the Knicks’ glory on opening night. But the Sixers have not played all that well since that game.
So much of cohesion is building up stretches of playing the way you intend to play. Can you get there for 15 minutes? How about 20? 25? Can you push that to 30?
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By season’s end, it’s a choir, and everyone is hitting the right notes at the right times. If all goes well, that is.
It’s still very early in the season, but the numbers are the numbers. I posted a thread of data to Twitter on Thursday, and it was met with both curiosity and accusations that I was overreacting to five games.
I’m not here to be alarmist five games into a season. You have WIP callers for that. But this is the state of affairs through five games.
They are 4-1 almost entirely because their halfcourt defense has been insane. It has made up for a poor transition defense. It has also saved a sputtering offense.
The first matchup against the Knicks is a microcosm of why they’ve been frustrating at times despite the 4-1 start.
I noted in my newsletter the morning of the season opener that they needed to make Jalen Brunson guard. They got a good chunk of offense out of punishing him and Landry Shamet in that game.
In the season opener, they got outrebounded by eight. Through five games, they are 25th in offensive rebounding rate on their own missed field goals, per Cleaning The Glass. That is an exceptionally tough lift when you consider that they are also 30th in effective field goal percentage. They are only a little bit better on the defensive glass, but not enough for it to neutralize what is effectively a one-shot offense right now.
The Knicks, on the other hand, are a much healthier fourth in offensive rebounding rate despite ranking 27th in effective field goal percentage. They’re also seventh in defensive rebounding rate.
Managing the glass is the only thing they’ve done well through a 2-3 start to the season.
But they have tape on the Sixers now. They have some revenge to exact. This will be a new challenge for the Sixers. Two early-season wins against the Knicks won’t tell us everything we need to know, but it would be a positive sign of how they manage an opponent who has seen them before.
But, that may ultimately prove irrelevant if the Sixers are short-handed on Friday night:
Player | Injury | Status |
|---|---|---|
Low back stress reaction | Out | |
Left knee soreness | Questionable | |
Left quadriceps strain | Out | |
Left patellar tendinopathy | Out |
For those keeping track at home, Walker was listed as ‘out’ with left knee soreness for Wednesday’s win over the Indiana Pacers. That has suddenly changed to ‘left patellar tendinopathy’. Could be nothing. Could be something.
The Knicks’ injury report is much lighter.
Player | Injury | Status |
|---|---|---|
Left ankle sprain | Out |
It’s NBA Cup play. Get excited!
Other coverage from Sixer world
Vertical 76 takeaways from the win over the Pacers: “There was no Ivica Zubac in his way. These were clear mismatches for [Joel Embiid] to attack, and the three other stars who governed most of the offense did nothing to put him in positions to dominate.”
Sixers Adam on the growing two-man game between Embiid and LeBron James.
Sixers Adam on the 10th anniversary of Embiid’s debut.
Paul Hudrick on Anfernee Simons’ breakthrough game in Indiana.
Bryan Toporek on how the NBA’s rash of injuries could affect the Sixers.