Nash Turns Back the Clock as Lakers Top Sixers

By Sean Kennedy

On the night Steve Nash celebrated his 40th birthday, the former all-star showed the kids he still knows a thing or two about playing ball, dropping a season-high 19 points and 5 assists in just 28 minutes of action to lead the Lakers to a 112-98 victory. Nash looked like a 30-year-old out on the court, on one play leaving Evan Turner absolutely flat-footed as he shook him with a behind-the-back crossover to blow past for an easy lay-in. The veteran also made a host of brilliant passes, showing why he was long considered the best assist-man in the game. Nash would have had even more assists if he was playing with a bunch of journeymen and would-be d-leaguers. At one point, he fed Ryan Kelly with a gorgeous pass on the pick-and-roll that should have been an easy two points but Kelly was so surprised by the pass that he fumbled it and it went recorded as a Nash turnover. Still, against a Sixers team playing their laissez-faire defense, he, along with Steve Blake and Kendall Marshall were able to penetrate and kick to open men all night.

At first, it looked like the Sixers were going to run away with things. They repeatedly had the lead up to 9 points in the first half as they were able to get into the lane at will for easy points in the paint, as well as collect offensive rebounds against the soft Lakers interior. The team was even shooting well from the outside, finishing 15-32 from three on the game, which only happens about once or twice a month and usually results in one of those rare Sixers victories. Turner, Hawes, Anderson, and Elliot Williams each finished with three triples, so it wasn’t just a matter of one guy cooling off. Things genuinely had a positive vibe early on for Philadelphia.

However, as has so often been the case, turnovers reared their ugly head, as the team committed 15 of their 23 turnovers in the second half, just making boneheaded decisions to play their way out of the game. The team finished with an equal number of turnovers as assists, which is a pretty textbook formula for failure. The Sixers also stopped attacking the basket in the second half, and let their early success from the outside prevent them from continuing to go at the Lakers in the paint. Philadelphia didn’t attempt its first free throw of the second half until there were 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Even for a team fairly averse to getting to the charity stripe, it was a really poor stretch. That second half was one where fans just have to shake their head and tell themselves it helps the organization come summertime.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• I wanted to see a repeat heave attempt at the end of the first quarter from Tony Wroten, but was disappointed when he lost control of his dribble and didn’t even get a shot off. Little did I know, I just had to be a little more patient. For the second straight game, Tony Wroten sank a shot from three-quarter court at the buzzer of the third quarter, this time banking it in. It’s beginning to feel like there are hot spots out there like in NBA Jam T.E. that only Wroten can see. His percentage from three-quarter court might be better than when he sets himself up for an open shot right at the three-point line; maybe he should expand it into his repertoire more often.
• Michael Cera was at the game last night, which prompted Malik Rose to try and reminder Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s character’s name in Superbad. After an awkward sequence, a statistician finally yelled over ‘McLovin’. Malik’s awesome at his job and I wish the team was better so the announcing team wouldn’t have to try so hard to keep the audience engaged.
• In the final minute, Michael Carter-Williams missed two free throws to deny the fans their free Big Macs for the team reaching 100 points. The boos rained down on the Sixers, when the fans were genuinely impassive about a double-digit loss at home to the injury-ravaged Lakers. It says a lot about either society, the state of the Sixers organization, or both, that free fast food was a higher priority for the people in attendance than a good performance from their team.

Tanking Implications:

It was a huge night on the tanking front, as the Magic upset the Thunder, the Cavs beat the Wizards on the road, and the Celtics defeated the Kings. The Sixers are comfortably sporting the third-worst record in the NBA, and are just a half-game better than the Magic for the second-worst mark. As for the game, we mentioned Wroten’s magical buzzer-beater, but he also played pretty well overall, shooting 6-9 from the field for a team-high 16 points. With Williams hitting from the outside, it continues to give hope that he’ll be a potential rotation guy down the road. 4/5 tanks