Demar Derozan, the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Raptors all-star shooting guard, returned to action tonight after missing 21 games due to a groin injury. His return had the arena amped, which in turn had the players amped, which in turn led to a 10-0 run for the Raptors to start the game when Brett Brown called a timeout to make sure the game didn’t all but end in the first 5 minutes. The Raptors prevailed 100-84 and Derozan finished with 20 points on 9-14 shooting in his return. So much for knocking the rust off.
If you didn’t see the game and just read that paragraph, you probably are thinking, “I didn’t miss much.” And if I then told you that the Sixers’ leading scorer (Tony Wroten) and leading floor spacer (Bob Covington, late scratch with shoulder contusion) both missed this game, you are now probably thinking, “Oh my lord how was this not more of a blowout?” Funny thing happened on the way to getting blown out by the Raps – the Sixers actually played some solid basketball.
Sure, they didn’t win, but with a minute to go in the first half the Sixers we’re only down 48-46, having completed erased that horrible first few minutes. MCW led the way most of the night, grabbing the reins in the absence of Tony “I can actually get my own shot” Wroten. McDubs finished with 29 points on 12-25 shooting with 7 boards and 4 dimes, and just looked damn confident (perhaps he read Chad Ford's chat?). Obviously having MCW be our primary scorer isn’t the long-term path to the Promised Land, but this year he has seemed to struggle with knowing when to take over and when not to. Tonight we needed him and he rose to the occasion, and it’s good to see he’s capable of that.
The Sixers more or less hung around all night until the very end (the final score was the Raps biggest lead), and that was mostly due to some nice defense. The Sixers had more steals (10-7) and blocks (8-2) than the Raps, and only turned the ball over 12 times compared to 17 for the Dinos. There were a couple great swats from Nerlens, JaKarr, and of course KJ (4 swats on the night), some solid rotations leading to drawn offensive fouls, and tight P-n-R defense leading to picked off dishes in the paint. It’s not a new story at this point, but the Sixers play hard on D and when things are clicking they are a young, long, athletic team that can be tough to score on.
Speaking of tough to score, for the Sixers everything and everyone is hard to score on. The difference in this game was the Raps shooting 46% from the field and 10-29 from downtown versus 38% from the field for the Sixers and 3-19 from downtown. On a good day the Sixers can’t shoot, and without Covington on the floor it’s nearly impossible. Nerlens is still progressing (12 and 8 with 3 steals and a block) and Jerami Grant, while only finishing with 7 pts, showed some crazy athletic flashes going to the hoop, but offense is going to be a slog for this team on a nightly basis.
Ultimately I choose to take the glass-half-full approach with this game. The Sixers were on SEGABABA, missing two of their main offensive weapons, playing one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference in their house, and instead of rolling over they played some tough D, hustled, and served notice to the Raps that they may own the Atlantic Division this year but you gotta earn those Ws against our squad.
