Sixers Leave Their Defense on the West Coast

By Sean Kennedy

Don’t you just hate it when you come back from a long road trip and realize that you forgot something. Maybe you left your phone charger in the hotel room or your favorite hat on the plane when you took it off to get some sleep. Well, the Sixers know the feeling too, because coming back from their very successful west coast road trip, the team forgot both their perimeter defense and ability to take care of the basketball in a 126-95 Minnesota rout.

The Timberwolves shot 16-26 from behind the arc, led by Kevin Love’s 4 triples on his way to a game-high 26 points. The script was all too familiar for Sixers fans, as a team not especially known for their perimeter prowess took advantage of the poor rotations and undisciplined nature of the Sixers defense. Corey Brewer was so open throughout the game that he didn’t miss a shot from the field until botching a breakaway dunk in the third quarter.

Also, after highlighting how well the Sixers had eliminated turnovers during their recent winning streak, they naturally had one of their worst games turnover-wise on the season, coughing the ball up 11 times in the first half and 22 on the game. Brett Brown pulled his starters out of the game before the third quarter even came to a close; it was not the homecoming many fans expected after the Sixers had won their last four games and entered play undefeated in 2014.

As has been the case of late, newly-minted Eastern Conference player of the week Thad Young was the best player on the floor for the Sixers. Thad kept the Sixers hanging around early on, despite their awful defense, dropping 13 points in the first quarter alone (even while having another three-pointer taken away because he had 0.3 seconds to get the shot off and needed 0.4). Young was once again extremely efficient with his offensive opportunities, and was one of the few Sixers to show life defensively, rising up from the weak side to block a Nikola Pekovic lay-up. Sorry Thad, even your efforts aren’t enough to carry this bunch every night.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• The Sixers turned the ball over in just about every way imaginable. They even had a turnover in the third quarter where Hawes illegally stepped in-bounds before a simple in-bounds pass in the back court; you know it’s a long game for Philadelphia when they can’t even get the ball into play correctly. Also, it wasn’t a turnover, but Carter-Williams hit Hawes in the back of the leg with a pass on a 2-on-1 fast break. Fortunately, it bounced right back to MCW who finished with the lay-in, but you still just had to shake your head.
• Aside from Thad Young, James Anderson was the best player on the floor for the Sixers on a night without much competition for that designation. Anderson made a couple nice moves including a gorgeous spin move along the baseline to finish in the middle of the lane, and a pretty up-and-under among the Minnesota trees down low. These performances support the notion that Anderson could be a solid rotational player even on a team that actually has some depth.

Tanking Implications:

For tanking advocates, the Sixers finally got back into the loss column after a 4-game hiccup, so things weren’t all bad for Philadelphia. Still, despite some hitting some shots and recording 5 assists in the first quarter alone, Carter-Williams had too many careless turnovers for me to consider calling this game progress for the rookie. With Tony Wroten out with the flu, James Anderson was the only player among the 24-and-under crowd who who looked like he belonged on an NBA roster (non-MCW division). These were the nights Sam Hinkie envisioned last summer. 3/5 tanks