By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
April 15, 2015 – Already locked into the 3rd worst record, the Sixers defeat a Miami Heat team resting its starters in preparation for their first-round matchup against old teammate LeBron James and the Cavaliers. Philadelphia finishes the season with a 20-62 record, one game behind the 21-61 Lakers.
May 19, 2015 – Two teams jump from the back end of the lottery into the top 3, meaning the Lakers move to 6th and the Sixers claim their pick in the upcoming draft. The Sixers’ actual pick remains at 3.
June 25, 2015 – In the first round of the 2015 NBA draft, the Sixers select D’Angelo Russell, Justise Winslow, Jerian Grant, and Sam Dekker, ushering in a new ‘Core Four’ that will go down in Philadelphia sports history.
June 15, 2018 – A roster composed of the Core Four plus Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, and a 37-year-old Jason Richardson complete a Finals sweep of the Spurs (yes, they’re still good) for the first Sixers title in 35 years.
To think, it was all possible thanks to Jordan Clarkson, Jabari Brown, and Wayne Ellington.
In what was a true battle of meta-tanking, the Lakers fired the first shot by announcing Jeremy Lin would be sitting out because he ‘wasn’t feeling well’; Lin had scored 29 points in the Lakers’ previous win against the Sixers. Philadelphia countered by sitting Luc Mbah a Moute, Jerami Grant, and Jason Richardson. Still, early on it looked like the Sixers were going to run away with things, as they opened up a 13-point lead early in the second quarter.
However, Jabari Brown, playing on the last day of his second 10-day contract for the Lakers, had other plans in mind. Brown (career-high 22 points on 7-10 shooting) ignited a 17-4 LA run to tie the game, setting up a back-and-forth affair the rest of the game.
In the final minute of regulation, with the combination of Nerlens Noel (19 points, 14 rebounds), Ish Smith (17 points), and Isaiah Canaan (18 points on 3-7 from three) doing their best to drag the Sixers to victory, Jordan Clarkson stepped up for LA with some key plays down the stretch. Clarkson (26 points, 11 assists) scored 6 points in the final minute of regulation, including 2 clutch free throws with 11 seconds left to help the Lakers keep pace and send the game to overtime.
In overtime, Byron Scott countered with blatant tanking move that should have meant easy victory for the Sixers. He started Ryan Kelly (a small forward in a slight powar forward’s body) at center, with wing Wes Johnson at the 4. As a result, the Sixers had 10 team offensive rebounds in overtime, while the Lakers had a total of 1 rebound on either end in extra time. However, what Scott didn’t count on was Wayne Ellington catching fire. Ellington (20 points on 4-6 shooting from three) went 3-3 for 7 points in overtime, also finding Clarkson out of a double-team under the hoop with one second left for the game-winning hoop. Nice try, Coach Scott.
Even while part of me was hoping the Sixers lost this game for the good of the franchise, there were plays made by the Sixers themselves that had me excited about the future. The biggest positive was Nerlens Noel continuing to get reps as the crunch-time go-to-guy on offense. First, he drew a foul and sank two free throws on the Sixers’ second-to-last possession of regulation to put the team ahead by 2. Then, he made pretty much the same jumper he tried against the Clippers Sunday night, tying the game on the Sixers’ last possession of overtime. Noel also had what would have been a tie with his swat of James Harden for block of the year if the refs hadn’t made a garbage call and whistled him for a foul.
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Nerlens was so upset about the call he dove to the ground in disbelief and then pretended like it was because he had to tie his shoe.
The other takeaway for me from this game is Furkan Aldemir can never be more than a bench guy getting a handful of minutes. The man simply fouls too much, as his personal foul rate leads the team by a country mile. Aldemir fouled out of the game last night in just 20 minutes of action, defending the likes of Tarik Black and Robert Sacre. That’s not exactly battling DeMarcus Cousins on the interior.
With the loss, the Sixers gained some breathing room from passing the Lakers in the standings and having their lottery chances thrown into chaos. Of their remaining games, a road contest with the Knicks is the only matchup against a team out of the playoff hunt. Barring teams resting a mass amount of starters, we don’t have to worry about tanking implications too much the rest of the way. Next on tap is a visit to Washington Wednesday night.
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