Showtime Sixers Win on Back-to-Back Nights

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Philadelphia 93, Indiana 92 – Box Score

For the first time since January of last year, the Sixers have won both games of a back-to-back, defeating the Pacers in dramatic fashion for their 3rd win in their past 4 games. The majority of the second half Saturday night played out like some sort of strange fever dream. First, there was a sequence in the third quarter where on three straight possessions, the Sixers received three-pointers from Tony Wroten, JaKarr Sampson, and Jerami Grant, when the best of that group shoots just 26.1% behind the arc on the season. The Sixers haven’t even made 3 threes in an entire game twice this season, but they were out there going an excellent 11-24 on the night against Indiana.

Believe it or not, this is the second time this year JaKarr Sampson and Jerami Grant have made a three in the same game.

— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) January 11, 2015

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Then, in the fourth quarter, Wroten (20 points, 9 assists) forgot he was in a tightly-contested NBA regular season game rather than playing a summer game in the Seattle Pro Am, and started doing amazingly bonkers stuff like this:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ix6AiI5QI]

That bit of bravado was the dunk of the night on SportsCenter and every other sports platform, and began a sequence where Wroten also attempted a no-look pass in the lane, and nonchalantly pulled up for a 25-footer (it missed, he is a 26.1% three-point shooter after all). Honestly, this was the sort of the high-flying action I was expecting all along from the young ‘Run With Us’ Sixers. If you’re not going to be good, at least be exciting. This week at least, however, they’ve also been good.

Even so, thanks to the formidable efforts of savvy veteran David West (game-high 28 points, 9 rebounds), the Sixers still found themselves down one in the closing moments. For the second straight night, it was their young point guard, Michael Carter-Williams, shaking off a sub-par outing to rise to the occasion when his team needed him most.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz3OYAxTYmc]

I’m not going to pretend Carter-Williams is playing great basketball (he’s shooting 32.1% this month), but that’s a pretty finish around one of the league’s best rim protectors in Roy Hibbert. You can see the advantage there of your point guard having a long 6’6″ frame. With game-winning assists and buckets on consecutive evenings, MCW’s confidence has to be at an all-time high. Hopefully, that translates into a better first 47 minutes going forward.

Other Game Notes:

• After a few strong outings offensively, Nerlens Noel was quiet on that end Saturday night, to be expected against the strong defensive front line of Hibbert and West. Still, he more than made his presence known on the game with a career-high 5 blocks, pulling even with teammate K.J. McDaniels for the rookie league lead. Per @Sixers, he’s the first Sixers rookie to record 5 blocks in a game since pinball master Todd MacCulloch in the 1999-2000 season.
• Robert Covington didn’t have the great all-around game he did against Brooklyn, but did help the cause by shooting 4-8 from three for 16 points. He’s now hit 4 threes in 3 of the 6 games in 2015. He wasn’t signed by an NBA team two months ago.

The Sixers are 4 games ahead of the Knicks and 8 games back of the 8-seed. They next take on the Hawks Tuesday night. Crazier things have happened.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3-eavMSBnk]