3-0! The fun keeps coming as the Sixers come from behind for the third straight game and beat the heavily favored Bulls. The WFC was electric during the second half, and it was as good of a crowd as I can remember. Let's get down to business. (Pardon the weird formatting)
1. MC DUB!!!
The kid has done it again. MCW played another fantastic game, dropping 27 and 10 while outplaying a former MVP, and the young point guard has positioned himself to claim the title of the city’s favorite athlete. Seriously. I mean who else would you
say? The Phillies are all overpaid and no good, (except Cowboy Dom) the Flyers
are dogs, and the Eagles simply don’t have any likable players. (Do not bring
up Shady McCoy or I’m going to kick you off my bus, highway or not.) The over-achieving
Sixers are easy to like, but the vets all carry Thorn/Collins era baggage, so
they will never win over the whole crowd, no matter how well ET and Big Spencer
play. This city is single and ready to fall in love; MC DUB just needs to make
his move.
2. Spencer the sniper.
This early season surge has been an
amazing run, with all 3 of the Sixers veteran core really exceeding
expectations. Big Spencer has been the best of the bunch, going on a shooting
rampage, hitting 65% from the floor and 50% from behind the 3 point line.
Spencer has been making defenses pay by moving the opposing center away from
the basket, or by knocking down open looks. A few weeks back on The Rights to
Ricky Sanchez podcast, Sam Hinkie, when asked if Spencer would lead the team in
3-point attempts, noted that Spencer was the best shooting center in the
league, and it made you think that management considered that ability as an big
asset. Obviously, they have made an effort to get Spencer shooting more threes,
and Spencer has been using 2 simple plays to get wide open looks. The first is simple, Spencer will trail the ball handler up the floor, and with Spencer’s defender already moving down low
he gets a wide open catch and shoot from the top of the arc. It is super simple
and it works, I like it, no need to work hard when you don’t have to. The
second play they’ve used is Spencer will drift out past the 3-point line after
setting a screen. When the ball handler goes around the screen, both defenders
tend to follow the ball, Spencer takes a step back behind the line and gets
himself a nice open look. This is the play used to clinch the game Saturday,
Spencer set a screen, got a behind the back pass from MCW, pumped faked Noah
(who had to jump with how good Spencer has shot this season), stepped up into
the circle, and drilled the dagger. This play also opens up the lane, if Noah
stays by Spencer MCW then can attack the basket and either go to the rim or
find a different shooter once a different defender comes to help. It’s a simple
theory, and it works. Great basketball.
3. Quick observations from the game.
- Tony Wroten is crazy fast, I’ve never seen a guy
go end to end any faster than him. - Tony Wroten is super fun to watch, always
cheering from the bench, always talking on the court, always hustling. He
sometimes gets out of control on offense, and sometimes overruns his man on D,
but he is a huge plus and one of my personal favorites. - We saw flashes of bad Evan Saturday, too many
dribbles and challenging 3 defenders at the rim. He’s been great overall, but
those are habits that need to stay gone. - Jimmy Butler’s hair reminds me of Omar White
from Oz. - The song should only play after a win, I don’t
want to hear it when we are down a couple of points in the 4th. - There were a ton of fans in Chicago gear
cheering on the Sixers comeback.
4. My kindred spirit in row H
There was this awesome old head behind me, who kept going on about banging guys on D and throwing elbows on screens. I’ve made it clear how I felt, and we were both getting feisty as
there were some shameful attempts on screens Saturday night. You would think it
is easy to get in somebody’s way when you are 7 feet tall and weigh 270 pounds,
but Lavoy, Spencer, and Orton are proving otherwise. Lavoy is the worst of the group;
he relies too heavily of his signature move, the “stick out my ass after the
guy is passed me”, which, as you might guess, is quite terrible. The team has
heart to be sure, but I’d like to see them just be a little nastier, ok a lot nastier.
5. Spencer the glass man
As important as Spencer has been on the offensive end, he may be more valuable as a rebounder. The Sixers have four guys averaging over 17 ppg, but only one guy with more than 7 rpg. With an
undersized power forward in Thad Young, it becomes Spencer’s responsibility (more
than anyone) to grab boards and end possessions. Spencer has to maintain his
early numbers, which have been great (well pretty good, but great compared to
Spencer’s past seasons.) Spencer is 12th is rebounding, averaging 11.3 per contest, which you’d expect from the lone big man for most of the game. Hawes is also 12th in rebound rate and 12th again in rebounds per 48 minutes, which tells you Hawes is doing a good job on the
boards so far and outperforming most of his peers in per minute rebounding, so
he isn’t simply compiling numbers by getting a lot of playing time. Plus, a lot
of the guys with a better rebound rate are specialty players like Reggie Evans,
Jeff Adrien, and Omer Asik who aren’t asked to do anywhere near as much as
Spencer has to do (or anything else at all, really).
SIXERS!!!
You know what time it is. I’ll be back Monday with a fun countdown of my favorite
Sixers games I’ve seen live, and Tuesday with a breakdown of Sixers/Warriors.
Until then, thanks for reading and it’s time to crank up those speakers!
