Sixers Strike Gold in Denver

By Sean Kennedy

So far the usually brutal West Coast has been kind to the Sixers, as they polished off the Nuggets 114-102, winning a 2nd-straight game for the first time since their 3-0 start to the season. (Remember that first week of the year when people were worried the Sixers wouldn’t lose enough? Feels like a lifetime ago.) Denver lost their 8th-straight game in the process and they looked like a team struggling to find the basket; excluding Wilson Chandler’s 4-7 mark from downtown, the Nuggets shot just 1-18 from behind the arc. On the other side, the Sixers caught fire in the second quarter, dropping 44 points (a season-high for a quarter for them) on the strength of five three-pointers in the period.

Reminiscent of the Sixers teams of old, the squad displayed a balanced effort with seven different players reaching double figures, including all 5 starters. Evan Turner led the way with 23 points, as his mid-range game was on point throughout the evening; the Villain also did a nice job finding cutters in the lane after he drove to the block, racking up 6 assists. Thad Young cooled off a bit from his recent torrid pace, but still finished with a double-double, 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The most glaring weakness on the night was the Sixers’ interior defense, as J.J. Hickson carved them up for 19 points and 11 rebounds. Playing with a frenetic energy, Hickson constantly attacked the rim, and got Spencer Hawes in early foul trouble, as he picked up three fouls very early in the first quarter. Hickson and Kenneth Faried were getting all sorts of easy baskets down low but the Sixers did appear to be making a better effort along the perimeter (usually their achilles heel), so I suppose you can’t stop everything (unless you’re a legitimately good defensive team).

Sixers star rookie Michael Carter-Williams had an up-and-down game. On the negative side of the ledger, he turned the ball over 5 times, often rushing or forcing bad passes in transtion, and didn’t shoot the ball particularly well (5-15 on the game). However, as usual, MCW did a little of everything with 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals; he is particularly adept at those quick-twitch jumps to get the offensive rebounds off his own misses around the rim, it’s nice having a 6’6″ point guard. He also showed his meddle in the closing minutes of the game: MCW had Hickson off a switch with the shot clock running down. Rather than just hoisting up a long jumper, he drove at Hickson and backed him off him, before calmly draining the pull-up elbow jumper. It was a veteran move from the rookie and as much of a positive sign for the franchise as any win this season.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• Fans were treated to one of those nights where Hollis Thompson looks like a perfect role player rather than just being completely invisible. Thompson dropped 11 points and 4 rebounds in just 17 minutes as Brett Brown gave some more minutes to a hot-shooting James Anderson. However, two plays by Thompson stood out to me during his time on the court. On one play, he secured and offensive rebound around the three-point line and quickly attacked the lane, finishing in traffic with a beautiful left-handed finger-roll. On another play early in the game, he and Spencer Hawes played give-and-go with Hawes threading the needle from the elbow to a sharp-cutting Thompson for the lay-in. Thompson looks so fluid and decisive on those occasions, making it look like he has a bright future in the league.
• Lavoy Allen had his best game of the season, scoring a season-high 13 points. Not only did Allen sink his 2nd career three, ‘enjoying the altitude in Denver’ according to Malik Rose, but he was much more aggressive down low, making sharp cuts to the rim and showing off a nice post move to finish with a baby hook. Allen’s complete disappearance the majority of the season has been one of the worse aspects of this campaign; it was nice to see him flash that potential he once showed.
• The third-quarter Comcast ad for tonight’s Kings game urged fans to check out the ‘resurging’ Sixers. I suppose having at that point what was a 1-game winning streak could count as resurging; after all, the team has set the bar awfully low this season.

Tanking Implications: 

Winning streaks are not the foundation high lottery picks are made of, and Philadelphia now has won consecutive games for the first time since the beginning of the season when the team was covered on every media outlet as the surprise story of the year. The Sixers received contributions across the board in this most recent win, with MCW having a mixed performance but showing plenty of those rookie of the year flashes, and guys like Hollis Thompson and James Anderson were back looking like potential role players down the road. 2/5 tanks