Sixers Begin West Coast Trip in Portland

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

The Wells Fargo Center is currently occupied with Disney On Ice’s Frozen, as the latest unstoppable force of nature from the Mickey Mouse company continues to send parents’ bank accounts into an eternal winter. Meanwhile, the Sixers begin their annual West Coast road trip looking like a curse of their own may finally be broken. If you squint a bit, Brett Brown’s bunch is starting to resemble a legitimate NBA team. The Sixers have an actual two-game winning streak under their belts, are 4-2 in their last 6 road games, and sport the 2nd-best defensive rating in the NBA during the month of December. Heady stuff for a squad that had clowns out there seriously believing they would lose to a college team just a month ago.

While the media and general public have moved on to bigger trainwrecks like the Knicks and Pistons, the Sixers are happy to go back to quietly having young players learn how to win professional basketball games. They’ll face a difficult challenge Friday night in Portland, as the Trailblazers currently sit with the second-best record in the NBA. The Blazers appear to have fully worked out Coach Terry Stotts’ defensive strategy of funneling opponents into taking mid-range shots. Although Portland’s opponents have the second-best shooting percentage from 10-14 feet, the Blazers hold them to the second-worst effective FG% overall. Teams shoot just 23.4% from 25-29 feet against Portland, easily the lowest mark against any team in the NBA. For a Sixers squad that has organized its entire offensive philosophy around avoiding the mid-range shot, it should be interesting to see which side gains the upper hand in that respect.

Portland also does good work on the glass, leading the league in rebounds per game, even staying strong in that area while without starting center Robin Lopez, who has missed the last 5 games and will be out about another month with a broken hand. Nic Batum missed Tuesday’s game with a wrist injury, and has been largely ineffective much of the season, meaning even more of the team’s burden has fallen on the star pairing of LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard. These two may not get the attention the deserve seeing as how Portland, Oregon isn’t exactly a huge media market, but in my opinion, they are two of the top 20 players in the league today.

Aldridge is one of just three players (along with Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins) to average 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. Ironically given his team’s defensive strategy, Aldridge makes hay largely in the mid-range game, making (and attempting) the most mid-range shots in the entire league. It’s one thing to say in theory that you want to give up those shots, but when a player is unusually effective at making them, it puts added stress on a defense that they don’t normally account for on most nights. To his credit, Aldridge has also worked hard to expand his range, and has attempted over 1 three per game, hitting 47% of those shots. Defending the all-star should be a unique and challenging endeavor for the Sixers’ Nerlens Noel.

Then there’s Dame, who in just his third year in the league, has quickly cemented his reputation as one of the premiere clutch players in the game. With a 46%/40%/88% shooting line, Lillard is putting up career-best figures across the board. But it’s when the final seconds are ticking down that the star point guard shifts things into another gear.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hn_otNoD64]

Lillard is one of the exciting young stars in the game today, and an interesting contrast to the point guard the Sixers are trying to build around, Michael Carter-Williams. While Lillard can score from anywhere, but isn’t exactly known for his defensive prowess, MCW’s shot is still cringe-worthy, but will hopefully reach the point where his size and quick hands make him a terror on the defensive end. It’s always interesting to see a contrast in styles go toe-to-toe.

With 5 West Coast games about to begin, tonight’s game doesn’t jump out as one the Sixers might be able to steal. That being said, you would have thought the same thing last season, and the Sixers ended up with their longest winning streak of the season on the Disney on Ice trip, including a win in Portland. The team is playing some great defensive ball right now, and trying to stop Aldridge, Lillard, and company should provide a nice barometer of how far they’ve really come.