Raptors Tear Apart Sixers Perimeter Defense in 108-98 Final

By Sean Kennedy

With Michael Carter-Williams back in the lineup after sitting four games with a bruised arch, it was thought that the Sixers would be back to full strength and able to take down a middling Toronto Raptors squad. But then it was announced just prior to gametime that Thad Young was not available due to personal reasons. With Philadelphia’s best pick-and-roll defender not in attendance, Toronto had a field day picking apart the Sixers defense, getting into the heart of the defense and finding guys behind the arc where they finished 14-29 on the night.

The main beneficiary was DeMar DeRozan, who finished with a game-high 33 points on the night. DeRozan has that baseline three-pointer down pat, hitting three from the same spot in front of the Toronto bench, and also did a great job attacking the rim and either finishing or earning trips to the foul line (10-12 on FT). I didn’t see much in the way of inefficient long jumpers from DeRozan, as for one night anyway, he looked like a serious player.

His usual cohort in chucking, Rudy Gay, was not as efficient, going 6-16 from the field on the evening for his 18 points. To Gay’s credit though, he found open teammates on his way to 8 assists. For some reason, the Sixers’ strategy was to double-team Gay when he received the ball, which opened up plenty of skip passes for guys like Terrence Ross and Steve Novak to knock down open jumpers. I think the Sixers would have been better-served just playing Gay straight-up and letting him try to break guys down and settle for those long jumpers he likes to take.

In his return to action, Michael Carter-Williams was outplayed by former Nova guard Kyle Lowry of the Raptors. On the first play of the game, Carter-Williams left his feet to make a pass, turning the ball over and leading to a run-out and easy points for Toronto. MCW looked a bit sluggish on the night as he works his way back into game shape. Although he did have a couple of highlight blocks, both on former slam dunk champion Terrence Ross, getting up with him to strip the ball out from behind on occasion, and climbing the ladder to deny him at the rim on another. The Sixers will be better equipped going forward when MCW is back at full strength.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• This is the section where I give Spencer Hawes all sorts of respect (I know, I never thought this day would come either). First, Comcast showed a stat last night that Hawes has played in 130 consecutive games including the playoffs. He’s shaken that reputation as an injury-prone player following early back problems and really become a durable, dependable guy to have. Hawes stepped up with arguably his best game of the season in the absence of Thad Young, finishing with a season-high 28 points (on 10-13 shooting including 3-4 from behind the arc) and 10 rebounds. Big Spence has been the best interior defender for the team in addition to the team’s best outside shooter, a rare combination and something that should be valued.
• The Sixers made some roster moves before the game, dropping Darius Morris and Kwame Brown in favor of signing guards Elliot Williams and Lorenzo Brown. Morris didn’t show me anything during his Sixers tenure to think he should be a rotation player and we all knew how the Kwame Brown saga would end up. Williams played a year each at Duke and Memphis before being drafted in the first round by Portland. He’s an athletic guy that’s been plagued by knee issues in the association. Brown was taken in the second round by the Timberwolves after a career at NC State. He’s cut from the MCW-Wroten mold with good court vision but an inconsistent shot. Both guys received limited playing time last night so we’ll see what they bring to the table in games ahead.
• Interesting tidbit from Malik Rose tonight as he talked about how Gregg Popovich used to tell him to ‘ give ’em 3′, meaning allow the refs to make three bad calls a night and then you can go off on them after that. Rose said it never got past three and it helped him stay level-headed when calls went against them in the game. I thought that was a great way for Pops to get across to his players the value of not complaining to the refs while acknowledging their competitive nature.

Tanking Implications:

The losing continued which only increases the number of ping pong balls in Sam Hinkie’s pockets (I assume there will be some sort of table tennis tournament among GMs to decide draft order). Still, it was a rough first game back for Michael Carter-Williams, who struggled with his shot and made some bad decisions in turning over the ball. The Sixers were carried by Hawes, who is in the last year of his contract and may be traded at some point this season so he may not even be part of the team’s future. 3/5 tanks.