Pistons Fire Away From Deep to Stunt Sixers

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

The Sixers need to find their ‘Josh Smith’: the player they can jettison off the roster and magically transform from one of the worst to one of the best teams in the league. After starting the season 5-23, the Pistons actually released Smith, eating tens of millions of dollars in the process, but have since gone 11-2, including last night’s wire-to-wire victory over the Sixers.

Detroit is now 1 game out of the final playoff spot in the East, which a) is really embarrassing for the East because they’re still just 16-25, and b) absolutely crazy, did I mention they were 5-23?!? Stan Van Gundy has transformed the Pistons into a facsimile of his Dwight Howard-led Magic teams, surrounding Drummond with a bunch of three-point shooters. The bomb squad from the perimeter was the biggest different in the game in the Sixers’ defeat Saturday night.

The Pistons finished the contest 15-35 from behind the arc, wasting no time in getting things started by hitting their first 3 threes of the game to jump out to a 15-4 advantage from which they would never look back. Kyle Singler led the way with a 6-8 night from downtown for a game-high 20 points. He hadn’t found it so easy to score since his days as BMOC at Duke. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 17 points, hitting 3 of 6 threes.

While Detroit has been playing well and hit some ridiculous shots, it was also just not a good performance from the Sixers. A perfect encapsulation of their efforts came at the end of the third quarter, when with the final seconds counting down they were beaten down the floor for an easy transition bucket. The real kicker was Henry Sims completely ignoring Kyle Singler as he rushed the ensuing in-bounds, allowing Singler to steal the ball and drain a corner three moments before the buzzer. One night after turning the ball over just 10 times in the victory over New Orleans, the Sixers gave it away 22 times, often just out of carelessness or poor decision-making, rather than real forced pressure from the Pistons.

One positive for the Sixers was the continued success for Michael Carter-Williams shooting the ball, as the point guard went 6-12 from the field for a team-high 15 points. It wasn’t his best game, as he made some poor decisions in turning it over 4 times against just 6 assists. However, Carter-Williams has now shot 35-69 (50.7%) over the last 4 games, allaying some of fans’ fears after the 2-20 and 1-13 outings.

In case you forgot after Friday night, these are the games we have to expect from time to time with such a young roster. It’s not all dancing with cheerleaders and off -the-backboard alley-oops on the fast break. The Sixers will be back in action for a 2:00 pm MLK Day matinee against the Wizards tomorrow.

Other Game Notes: 

• Despite the gaffe mentioned earlier, Henry Sims largely played well, collecting 12 points and 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes off the bench. I was surprised Brett Brown didn’t go with a big line-up for more of the game, as the Sixers were killed on the defensive glass with Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe combining for 13 offensive rebounds.
• Former Sixer Jodie Meeks (or M33ks as he’s known in the Sixers internet community) recorded 15 points off the bench and tied a career-high with 6 steals, after not swiping a single steal in his previous 8 games.
• Larry Drew II, playing for the second game under his current 10-day contract, had another solid outing with 9 assists off the bench. It’s nice for the Sixers to have an actual back-up point guard (given his style of play, I don’t think Wroten necessarily qualifies), and Drew has certainly done enough thus far to at least warrant a second 10 days with the club.