Sixers Fall Just Short in Orlando

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

The Sixers had already played a game since the trade deadline, but with Isaiah Canaan making his debut, Sunday night felt like the true beginning of a new era for the team. With a starting lineup consisting of Canaan, Jason Richardson and Robert Covington, I noted it was probably the best shooting group the Sixers had on the court this season. That long-range potential certainly came to fruition, as Philly used the long ball to hang with Orlando throughout the game:

The #sixers made 13 three pointers tonight (38.2% 3pt%). It’s only the 4th time in the past 2 years the sixers made 13+ three’s in a game.

— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) February 23, 2015

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However, the flip side of bringing a more offensive-minded approach was that the Sixers’ defense was not nearly as sharp. Without Michael Carter-Williams, K.J. McDaniels, or Luc Mbah a Moute (who was unavailable for this game due to personal reasons), the defensive rotations looked severely out of whack; the Sixers have now given up over 100 points in each of the two games since the trade deadline.

On top of Channing Frye and Willie Green (somehow getting over 30 minutes for a rebuilding Magic team at age 33) repeatedly getting open jumpers, Philadelphia also had no answer on the interior for former Sixer Nik Vucevic. Vucevic, who has post moves for days and has developed as fundamentally sound a game as any big man in the league, controlled the contest with 31 points on 14-24 shooting and 14 rebounds.

Still, whenever it looked like the Magic would really pull away, the Sixers would hit a couple big shots to charge back into the game. You could tell the Magic didn’t update their scouting report which said to remain 5 feet off Sixers point guards at all times.

Canaan finished 4-9 from three for 14 points, while Covington tallied 16 points and 9 rebounds. Nevertheless, it was actually an unexpected man who the team turned to in crunch time. JaKarr Sampson (16 points) scored 11 straight Sixers points late in the fourth quarter, bringing his team’s deficit from 7 to down just 1 with 1:37 left in the ball game. Despite that charge, the Magic would then go on a 5-0 run to take back control. After Canaan hit a ballsy 3 to get the Sixers back within one possession, Nerlens committed a bad foul by reaching in on Victor Oladipo late in the shot clock to end things.

Despite the loss, the Sixers are still playing hard and it’s interesting to see a dramatic shift in style occurring so rapidly. We’ll see if it can start translating to some wins when guys begin to learn defensive responsibilities with one another and cut out some of those turnovers which are blatantly a result of not having played together. If not, the organization is still hoping for a better draft pick anyway, might as well go down firing away from long distance. The Sixers will be right back at it Monday night in Miami.