The talk of the Sixers these days is about future draft picks, but tonight they got hit over the head by a draft pick from the past. Ex-Sixer Nikola Vucevic powered the Orlando Magic to a 103-98 victory over the visiting 76ers with 31 points and 14 rebounds. JaKarr Sampson and Robert Covington led the way for the Sixers with 16 points apiece, while new starting PG Isaiah Canaan had 14.
The Sixers simply had no answer for Vucevic. He bowled through Nerlens Noel like he was, well, a 217 lb center. He schooled Henry Sims and JaVale McGee all night with a flurry up-and-unders, pivots, spin moves, and hooks through the lane. I refuse to second-guess the Bynum trade, and obviously I’d rather have Embiid than Vucevic, but man he looked good tonight. How did this kid get so few minutes while on the team? What the hell Doug??
The Sixers made a game of this one down the stretch, despite Vucevic’s dominance in the paint. They found themselves down 12 with 5:35 to go in the game, their largest deficit of the night, and then JaKarr Sampson did the Sponge Bob thing and scored 11 pts down the stretch to almost steal the game. A few bad fouls after that push though, and it wasn’t meant to be.
JaKarr antics aside, the boys from Philly really stayed in the game through some decent shooting from downtown, going 13 for 34 (38%) from the arc. Thirteen made 3-pointers is the second highest total for the Sixers this year (they hit 14 against Atlanta back in January). Six different players hit a 3-pointer for the 76ers, a couple of who weren’t even playing for the Sixers a week ago.
Speaking of new players, you may have heard that the Sixers roster has undergone some changes of late, and those changes were on display tonight. Remember back in November when the Sixers were basically a slashing team, relying on MCW and Tony Wroten to get to the rack because no one could hit a shot to save their life? Tonight we rolled out Isaiah Canaan (career 36% shooter from downtown) and Jason Richardson (16th on the ALL-TIME 3pt made list!) as our backcourt. Canaan wasted no time showing off the main difference between him and his predecessor, draining a three-ball on his first touch, and finishing the night 4-9 from downtown. All the sudden it feels like we have retooled into a jump-shooting team, which is … different. The lack of shooting has been one of the biggest problems for the Sixers this season (granted though, it has been much better lately), so this could be viewed as a positive development for sure.
There is of course a downside to this. At halftime, the Magic had 28 pts in the paint to the Sixers’ 4, and Brett Brown decried all the long 2s he had seen in the first two quarters, imploring the team to remember that we not only jack up 3s at a crazy rate, but we are supposed to be pushing the ball in transition. Canaan took 9 threes tonight out of 12 total shots. For comparison, MCW never once this year took more than half of his shots from downtown. What a difference a trade makes indeed.
It is expected that with all these new faces comes an adjustment period, and there were some growing pains tonight. With two relatively new guards and one new big man, the pick-and-roll coverage suffered as switches and assignments were unclear. This led to plentiful wide-open jumpers for Channing Frye (3 3-pointers) and Willie Green (2 3-pointers) on botched PNR coverages. It wasn’t that long ago that our rotations were looking pretty damn crisp, but it will take time to integrate these new pieces.
I’ve seen plenty of jokes recently about how the Sixers were winning too many games as of late for Hinkie’s liking, so they traded away some more players. Well I have gone out on a limb in conversations lately saying that I’m not sure the Sixers are appreciably worse without MCW and KJ, given the presumed boosts in shooting and efficiency with them gone. Well, we won’t know if that is true or not for a little while (although tonight was perhaps not a great sign), but we DO know that the Sixers are a largely different team today as compared to just 10 days ago. It’s yet another reminder (as if the trades weren’t enough) that this is a work in progress and, while there are hints of what the final product will look like (long arms, 3s, defense), we still have no idea what this team is going to be when “The Plan” is officially enacted. Until then though, maybe hold off on buying that Canaan jersey.
