Sixers Listless in Loss to Celtics

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

It’s NCAA tournament season and for all those great games ahead, there are going to be a few 1 v. 16 clunkers as well. With that in mind, it was awfully nice of the Sixers to help us get in the right mindset as viewers, doing their best 16 seed impression in a blowout loss to the Celtics.

The only difference is, unlike a 1 v. 16 game, there wasn’t some huge talent gap on display Monday night. Boston is playing well (now winners of 5 straight), but there’s no reason the Sixers shouldn’t be locked into a competitive battle with the C’s. No, this loss was all about one thing: defensive effort, or a lack thereof, from the Sixers.

Things went off the rails right from the opening tip as the Celtics shot 16-24 from the field in the 1st quarter on their way to a 38-18 lead. Tyler Zeller utilized his elite athleticism took advantage of lazy Sixers defense to go off for a career high 26 points on 11-15 shooting. Numerous times he simply beat the entire Sixers team down the court for an uncontested lay-in, not off live ball turnovers or anything, simply off Boston defensive rebounds. He also displayed a nice touch on the jumper from the top of the circle in pick-and-pop situations.

Speaking of the pick-and-roll, like Cyndi Lauper waiting, time after time the Sixers were hapless in defending it. Avery Bradley was the prime catalyst for Boston, dropping 20 points on 8-14 shooting, including 4-7 from three, to go along with 10 rebounds and 6 assists. The Sixers displayed no communication talking through screens, no rotational help, and certainly no aggressiveness on the defensive end. One of the more steal-happy teams in the league, the Sixers didn’t force the first Boston turnover until midway through the second quarter.

If there were any positives to be drawn from this game (there weren’t really, but humor me), the Sixers did finally wake up offensively after halftime, scoring 34 points in the third quarter. Unfortunately, they never flipped the switch defensively, so Boston was never quite in danger of the game becoming competitive.

With Boston possessing almost literally nothing in the way of rim protection, Nerlens Noel had a nice game offensively, scoring a team-high 18 points on 7-15 shooting. However, I imagine to the surprise of most, he was absolutely worked on the other end by Zeller. The scoring total was fine, but it was not a good game at all for the ‘Nerlens deserves to be in the Rookie of the Year conversation’ crowd.

Similarly, inserted into the starting lineup, Hollis Thompson had a nice game offensively but was also a sieve on the other end. Holliswood went 2-5 from three and recorded 13 points, but was torched repeatedly by Bradley. Thompson needs to show more of the ‘D’ if he’s ever to live up to his 3-and-D guy ceiling.

Coming off the bench, Ish Smith and Thomas Robinson brought some energy in an otherwise languid affair. Smith finished with 16 points on 7-13 shooting, but did have one of his poorer games as a distributor with 4 turnovers against 4 assists. Meanwhile, T-Rob recorded 7 points and 5 rebounds, and provided probably the lone highlight of the game when he spread the natural clay and gave Kelly Olynyk a facial.

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I’m not sure why Coach Brown only gave Robinson 15 minutes on the night; he at least brought some fire to the game. The same couldn’t be said for the majority of the Sixers in this one.

Monday was one of the rare times when a win might have been good for the Sixers’ draft implications, as Boston is neck-and-neck with Miami and the Sixers are in danger of missing on the Heat’s top-10-protected 1st-rounder. However, at least the loss helped Philly stay even with Minnesota in the loss column. With just 15 games remaining, every defeat is crucial for the future of the franchise. The Sixers will next take on the Pistons Wednesday night.