By Sean Kennedy
Has the student become the teacher? It’s been an excellent start to a coaching career for the Sixers’ Brett Brown. He has a young squad, expected to be among the worst in the league, exceeding all expectations and sitting in first place in the division in this early stage of the campaign. Brown has made a noticeable difference on the team’s shot selection, consistently diagrams great plays out of timeouts, and would have to be in the early conversation for coach of the year. Now, he’ll go up against the man under whom he toiled for so many years, as Philadelphia takes on Gregg Popovich and the Spurs. Like when they faced the other NBA Finals squad this season, Philadelphia will catch the Spurs on the tail-end of a back-to-back, after San Antonio blew out the Knicks in New York yesterday afternoon. However, no player for the Spurs logged more than 26 minutes in that contest so it remains to be seen if that will even play a factor.
Thus far this season, San Antonio has combined an efficient offense with the third-best defense in the league to race out to yet another good start to the season at 6-1. The Spurs have been the 4th-best team in the league at taking care of the ball, and in typical Popovich fashion, the team is eschewing offensive rebounds in favor of getting back on defense to prevent transition opportunities. Those factors do not bode well for the Sixers, who rely on turnovers out of their chaotic defensive scheme to get easy baskets in transition. Furthermore, San Antonio is very disciplined on the defense end, allowing the fewest percentage of offensive rebounds themselves and, like the Sixers, rarely put opponents on the free throw line. With limited success in traditional half court offense, Philadelphia will likely struggle to put points on the board tonight.
The Spurs have plenty of weapons to exploit Philadelphia’s poor three-point defense in Finals assassin Danny Green and Marco Belinelli, among others. Offensively for the Spurs, it’s been business as usual, with Tony Parker running the show amidst plenty of pick-and-rolls to create efficient shot opportunities for both himself and his teammates. Tim Duncan is still putting up elite numbers on a per-minute basis, as the team limits him to under 30 minutes a game to keep him fresh for the long slog of the NBA season. The Sixers will need to approximate the defensive intensity they showed against Cleveland on Friday if they’re to have any chance of limiting a San Antonio attack that’s a well-oiled machine at this point.
One very curious thing to watch regards Kawhi Leonard, who was expected to assume an even greater offensive role this season coming off a terrific Finals performance, but was moved to the bench for the first time against the Knicks. Popovich stated it was a move to keep either Boris Diaw or Leonard on Carmelo Anthony defensively at all times, but Leonard is a player who bears watching, as he has struggled out of the gates this season, and certainly hasn’t made the leap many expected of him.
Overall, the Spurs are just too disciplined a team to get into the running, haphazard match the Sixers would like to get into. Brett Brown is laying the foundation for a great team here in Philadelphia, but he’s only a month in while Gregg Popovich has been doing this for decades. Vegas lists San Antonio as 6.5-point favorites, which speaks both to the back-to-back for the Spurs and the respect the Sixers have garnered with their play this season. Ultimately, I feel this might be more like the Warriors game than the Heat contest; San Antonio takes this one.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
