Death by Corner Three: Spurs Rout Sixers 109-85

By Sean Kennedy

Philly Fast Break was in the house for Monday night’s game. Check out some photos from the Wells Fargo Center on the official Philly Fast Break instagram page.

A few weeks ago, Sixers fans had steeled their hearts against this sort of outcome. Yeah, the team will be awful, everyone will blow them out, and they’ll lose 70 games. But it’s all part of the plan to bring in an eventual superstar through a stacked draft so bring on the losses. But then there was the Miami game, and Washington, and Chicago, and Cleveland, and Cleveland again in what was perhaps the most exciting game of all, albeit in a losing effort. Now, we have some sort of expectation for the team to compete every night. But guess what folks, this is the same roster many pundits expected to have the worst record in the league. So of course a well-disciplined, veteran San Antonio squad is going to exploit every Philadelphia weakness, even with Tim Duncan packaged away in bubble wrap to keep him fresh. Remember, this was the plan.

Nearly every San Antonio possession was a clinic on how to beat an overaggressive, attacking defense like the Sixers’. First, there is the pick-and-roll, Tony Parker gets into the lane, zip a pass to a wide-open guy outside the arc. If a Sixers defender runs out, skip pass to the corner for another wide-open Spurs knockdown shooter. If the Sixers are really hustling on this particular play and get another run-out at the guy in the corner, quick pass to the vacated guy in the paint. Lay-up. Ball game.

That’s the formula to beat Philadelphia on the offensive end; all a team needs is some patience and willingness to make the extra pass to the open man and they’ll get open shots for days. It doesn’t hurt to have a dynamic point guard like Tony Parker (14 points, 9 assists) or an international coterie of bomb squad assassins (13-28 on three-pointers as a team). When you score like that, and make a concerted effort to get back on defense and prevent fast break opportunities that the Sixers thrive upon, you’ll reveal the cheap metal under the gilded exterior that was Philadelphia’s 3-0 start.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• I have to give props for the effort of Spencer Hawes Monday night. For large stretches of the game, he was the only Sixer who looked like a legitimate NBA player. He hit a couple threes, actually worked the paint when he had a smaller defender on him, and controlled the boards while throwing in a couple ferocious blocks. There was a stretch in the second quarter where Hawes came back in the game to join the Sixers ‘B’ squad. The team quickly made a 7-0 run which was the last time the game sniffed being competitive, and that was all due to Hawes. No surprise that the team’s greatest American came through on Veteran’s Day.
• Evan Turner finished with 20 points but it was probably his worst performance of the season, as it took him 9-21 shooting to get there. The Spurs were doubling Evan whenever he get into the lane, knowing he would either be determined to ‘get his’ and force a bad shot, or that the Sixers don’t have enough effective three-point shooting to hurt them on a kickout (5-19 on threes as a team).
• Michael Carter-Williams had one of those poor shooting nights we had expected to see more of coming into the year, going just 2-11 from the floor. Focusing on the silver lining though, the kid just has awesome defensive instincts away from the ball. On multiple occasions, he came over from the weak side to steal a post entry pass, or block the resultant shot attempt. He also has great hands reaching in to knock the ball away when an opposing player dribbles near him. 3 steals and 3 blocks from your point guard is a ridiculous stat line.
• Marco Belinelli wears his warm-up pants tucked into his socks. That was the only aspect of the Spurs’ efforts Monday night that didn’t look good.

Tanking Implications: 

Games like these were what people envisioned as they discussed the Sixers having a historically bad season before the year. The defense was completely picked apart by an offense disciplined enough to move the ball and find the open man, and Philadelphia never really stood a chance. As far as growth for the future, Carter-Williams flashed his defensive potential and showed great court vision on a couple of plays, but this was one of those terrible shooting nights his critics projected coming out of Syracuse. Tony Wroten brought more good than bad plays to the table but didn’t provide enough to really move the needle. 3/5 tanks.