Sixers Defense Disappears Against Magic

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Orlando 124, Philadelphia 115 – Box Score

Maybe the Sixers watched the NBA All-Star game and thought that was how the truly great players go about playing basketball? I don’t know how else to explain the utter lack of attention shown on the defensive end by the team in the three games following the All-Star break. All three opponents have scored 120+ points, the first such stretch allowed by the Sixers this season, a team I might remind you that lost it’s first 350 games of the season (all numbers approximate).

Tuesday night it was Orlando’s turn to outperform their own 26th-ranked offense. Philadelphia offered no resistance to former Sixer Nik Vucevic, who went off for a season-high 35 points (two shy of his career-high) on 13-21 and a perfect 9-9 from the foul line. Voose was dominating both Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor in the post, hitting mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper, and doing work on the offensive boards (3 of his 9 rebounds coming off teammates’ misses).

On the whole, the Sixers were fouling the Magic far too often; the final tally was 35-41 from the charity stripe for Orlando, against 19-26 for the Sixers. Like Vucevic, Victor Oladipo (22 points) also made all 9 of his attempts at the line. The free throw discrepancy and getting out-worked on the offensive glass (13-6 in favor of the Magic) were unfortunately too things that mirrored the loss to the Mavericks Sunday night.

Still, it was an exciting game most of the way as Philadelphia’s offense continues to hum along, partially helped by Vucevic being as poor at protecting the rim as he is good at scoring around the basket. The Sixers shot 54.4% from the field, including 10-21 from three, and looked competent scoring the basketball when they weren’t throwing it away (22 turnovers).

After having one of his worst games as a Sixer against the Mavericks, Ish Smith bounced back with a team-high 22 points (11 in the third quarter alone)on 7-15 shooting, adding 5 assists. He and Nerlens Noel renewed their psychic connection on a number of occasions, including yet another alley-oop. Noel finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block. Again though, Vucevic scored 35 points, so it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the #2 pencil.

Meanwhile, the Jahlil Okafor experience continues full-speed ahead to polarize the Sixers fanbase. On the one hand, he was able to score at will against Vucevic and company, dropping 17 points on 8-13 shooting. However, he only collected 2 rebounds, committed 4 fouls in 26 minutes, and turned the ball over four times. Also, Nik Vucevic scored 35 points, in case you hadn’t heard.

Brett Brown, hours after saying he was going to play Noel and Okafor together down the stretch of games through the rest of the season, already abandoned it and say Okafor on the bench in crunch time. A lot of the questions in the post-game press conference centered around that pair’s (in)ability to play together.

#Sixers Brett Brown on Noel, Okafor together: 'You have to bite your lip a lot to navigate them through it.'

— Tom Moore (@TomMoorePhilly) February 24, 2016

Noel on play w/Jah: 'The development has been steady & slow-paced. Obviously, playing together is something that's not easy to do at times.'

— Tom Moore (@TomMoorePhilly) February 24, 2016

The Sixers haven’t been playing good basketball lately, but more importantly, how their key pieces on the roster continue to clash bodes poorly for the long-term outlook for the franchise. With a meeting with the Pistons on tap for Wednesday night, a team that uses a 4-out, 1-in configuration, those problems would seem to remain on center stage once again.

Other Games Notes:

• T.J. McConnell, forever scrappy, won a jump ball against an 8-inches-taller Ersan Ilyasova. Sadly, in the process, he came down on Ilyasova’s foot and badly rolled his ankle. McConnell is doubtful for the game against the Pistons.
• The Sixers wings continued their hot shooting from behind the arc. Robert Covinton drained 2-5 and is now 16-30 over his last 4 games. Hollis Thompson made 3-6 and is inching closer to 40% yet again, currently at 38.7%.