By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Squad caps preseason with a W pic.twitter.com/Bm1zew8UsE
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) October 22, 2016
If you were going to script the perfect win for the Sixers during the 2016-17 season, it would probably look a lot like Friday night’s preseason finale in Miami. Philadelphia fought back from a second half deficit, and unlike past years, actually did enough to get over the hump, take the lead, and then hang on for the victory. Most importantly though, it was their two rookies in the starting frontcourt doing much of the heavy lifting.
Joel Embiid finished with 18 points and a game-high 9 rebounds in just 18 minutes of action. Encouragingly, a good portion of his time on the floor was spent going toe-to-toe with the $98M man, Hassan Whiteside. He ran the floor well, scored after establishing good post position, and finished out of the pick-and-roll, here showing good chemistry with Sergio Rodriguez.
Chacho 👉🏻Embiid nueva conexión en Phila https://t.co/LVtVNcT2Eb
— sanbasket (@sanbasket) October 22, 2016
The one downside for Embiid was that he fouled out in the fourth quarter, which obviously makes for a terrible foul rate given his low number of minutes. If Embiid is going to bump those minutes up into the mid-20’s, he will have to learn how to avoid those unnecessary fouls.
Meanwhile, Dario Saric was equally impressive with a game-high 19 points and 7 rebounds. Saric was an absolute bully down low, using his strong center of gravity to drive the defender back, and then a series of pump fakes and shooting with both hands to finish at the rim. He also showed off a pretty, finesse move with a spin move to get around Justise Winslow for a hoop. Then, Saric capped it all off with a three-pointer with a minute left to stretch the Philadelphia lead to 4. Great bounce back night for The Homie after a few rough shooting performances.
The Homie Dario Highlights ⤵️ https://t.co/CapJFOUEFd
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) October 22, 2016
Outside of the two main rookies, the best player on the floor for Philadelphia was Jerami Grant. Grant finished with 17 points on 4-9 shooting, best helped his cause by repeatedly getting to the foul line (9-12 on the evening). Jerami had an excellent preseason, scoring in double digits in 6 of the 7 games and looking more polished offensively than his strategy of past years to run through and jump over everyone.
The Sixers will next take the court Wednesday night against Oklahoma City in the regular season opener. Whether they win or lose, the success that night, and each night throughout the season will be determined by how these young blue-chip guys are progressing. Friday night was certainly a step in the right direction.
Other Notes:
- 76ers fans received some bad news earlier in the day that Nerlens Noel would be undergoing a minor surgerical procedure to repair an inflamed plica in his knee. Per the internet, a plica is a fold of membrane that only about 50% of people even have. It makes total sense that Noel would be suddenly afflicted with something that not everyone has to even deal with; if the Sixers didn’t have rotten, no good luck when it comes to injuries, they would have no luck at all.
- Although Noel remained out, Jahlil Okafor made his preseason debut and scored 4 points in 8 minutes of action. His only field goal attempted resulted in a gorgeous, spin move and finish against Hassan Whitside. The man certainly did not forget how to score during his long lay-off.
.@JahlilOkafor back. https://t.co/cstpIWLn4t
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) October 22, 2016
- Brandon Paul, Cat Barber, and James Webb all did not see action Friday, while Shawn Long played just 2 minutes. It’s clear at this point that they will be the final 4 roster cuts. Congratulations Nik Stauskas and Hollis Thompson. Despite doing nothing to earn it with your preseason play, you will be making the team once again, barring an external, recently-released player getting picked up.
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