Sixers a Few Adjustments Away From Elevating Into True Championship Contention Heading Into Playoffs

By Matt Gregan, Sports Talk Philly Staff Writer

The last two games against Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks were a proving ground for the Philadelphia 76ers as the team gears up for the playoffs. While the Sixers gave up double-digit leads in the process of losing both games, it showed the team is just a few adjustments away from being able to take the next step to go from losing these tight games against some of the NBA's top-shelf talent to being able to play a complete game and come away with wins.

Things clicked at times for the Sixers, but everything has yet to fully come together for the them as they continue to make the necessary adjustments to fine tune their play since the trade deadline acquisition of James Harden.

The adjustments begin with Harden needing to be more aggressive as a scorer and looking to pass the ball less. He scored 32 points, the most he has scored in a Sixers uniform, on 9-of-17 shooting from the field in the loss to the Bucks. He also took 10 threes, knocking down four of them, and got to the free-throw line 12 times.

"Just more aggressive tonight, more comfortable," head coach Doc Rivers said. "We had a good talk today, James and I. He’s trying to fit in and get guys going and I told him, ‘No, thank you.’ I said, ‘You’ll get going and we’ll figure it out. We just need you to be you. Don’t worry about everyone else. As long as you and Joel [Embiid] are in the right spots, we’ll figure out everyone else. But we need you to think of yourself as a scorer, not the way you played in Brooklyn where you were a point guard trying to run the team. We want him to be the James [he’s been], and tonight he was. That was a big step for us. I think that was really good.”

He played aggressively and looked for his own shot early on before settling in and helping get Joel Embiid further involved in the offense. Despite Harden still figuring out how he fits in the offense, the duo has been good early on. In 15 games (422 minutes) together on the court, the superstar duo has a dominant 119.9 offensive rating and a 12.5 net rating.

Much of their success together offensively has come through the pick-and-roll. Harden has a ton of experience throughout his career utilizing the pick-and-roll, and Embiid has flourished with that action in their time together early on. Despite the duo's early success, there are still some kinks needing to be worked out.

"It's a read. Obviously [Harden is] a good iso basketball player, so we want to give him as much room as we can,” Embiid said. "And then I also have the mismatch. So I think that’s when it comes down to execution; we’ve got to know what we’re doing. And in some situations, the iso can be good. In others, the other matchup could be good. But really the whole night, especially for me, I just tried to make the right plays over and over. They just kept doubling me everywhere on the floor, really, and I just knew that was a game where I had to make plays for others."

Execution was a common word thrown around after the loss to the Bucks. Tobias Harris, who put together another good game as he continues to adjust to his new role in the offense, also mentioned it in his post-game press conference. Execution is incredibly important especially as the Sixers are attempting to make a flurry of adjustments heading into the playoffs.

"You can obviously see it from the Phoenix game, and then today, as well — execution, composure," Harris said. "Two games that we were in and that we believe we should’ve won. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and figure out how we can sharpen up our coverages defensively. Our communication, that’s the biggest thing. And then offensively, we had some looks that just didn’t fall for us and we know we can make those."

The Sixers have the talent on the floor to be able to compete with the best teams in the NBA, meaning it all comes down to making adjustments and executing on them throughout the rest of the regular season and the playoffs.

The one area the Sixers are lacking in is a familiar one: Backup center. Rivers was giving those minutes to DeAndre Jordan, but he was supplanted – at least for one night – by Paul Millsap. Rivers mentioned after the game he "almost" went with fan favorite Paul Reed, but he ended up going with Millsap and the decision did not go well.

The only stat Millsap recorded in his nine minutes off the bench was a steal. He was abused by Antetokounmpo, who scored 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting when defended by Millsap.

According to https://t.co/ElSYPqQVMN’s matchup data from last night, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 15 points when Paul Millsap was his primary defender.

Millsap registered just under 2 minutes as Giannis’ primary defender.

— Austin Krell (@NBAKrell) March 30, 2022

The key stretch of the loss to the Bucks came when Embiid was on the bench late in the third quarter through early in the fourth quarter. Embiid left the floor with the Sixers up 82-72 with 2:10 remaining in the third quarter. By the time he came back with 9:22 left in the fourth quarter, the Sixers would only be up by two points, 93-91. The Bucks outscored the Sixers during this key stretch 19-11, with Antetokounmpo at one point scoring 13 consecutive points for the Bucks.

"The game really changed when I went on the bench," Embiid said. "At the end of that third quarter, beginning of the fourth, their best player scored, I don’t know, 17 in a row or whatever that was. We didn’t do what we had to do and they made their run and they cut the lead and they gained some momentum and it carried over."

When asked about what the team could have done better to stop Antetokounmpo during that stretch, Embiid let loose and brought up something the Sixers coaching staff should take note of for if this team matches up with the Bucks in the playoffs.

"I mean, I was on the bench the whole time. When I was on the floor, I really made sure I was always there to help," Embiid said. "I thought we didn’t follow up that strategy, we didn’t build a wall, and he had a lot of freedom to just attack and get whatever he wanted. That changed the game. Maybe next time, just match up the minutes."

Backup center is clearly once again going to be an issue for the Sixers heading into the playoffs. Rivers and the rest of the coaching staff should strongly consider listening to Embiid and make sure his minutes are matched up with Antetokounmpo. The Sixers have nobody who can adequately defend Antetokounmpo, who finished with 40 points, but at least matching his minutes with Embiid's will make things more difficult and prevent runs like the one in the second half on Tuesday from happening.

The Sixers have a few key adjustments to make if they are going to be able to make some noise in the playoffs. They have seven games remaining in the regular season to continue to fine tune things heading into the playoffs.