Pros and Cons: Sixers vs. Nets

An unmitigated disaster.

Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.

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In one of the most highly-anticipated regular season games I can remember, the Sixers played host to the Brooklyn Nets tonight. Things didn't go as planned. Here’s what’s on my mind:

Pro / Con? : Ben Simmons makes his return to Philadelphia

It’s not really a Pro or a Con, but the main story all night was Simmons -- even with him being parked on the bench. 

To my surprise, Simmons did come out to the court before tip-off, rebounding for fellow Australian Patty Mills. Even with a half-full arena, Simmons got an earful from the partial crowd that would boo him whenever he touched the ball. 

In the latter portion of warmups, Simmons put down a simple dunk, and immediately was mocked by the crowd in the form of sarcastic, very loud cheers. 

Anti-Simmons chants dominated the entire night, from pregame to the final buzzer. The atmosphere was exactly as hectic and chaotic as I anticipated, and it gave this game a real playoff atmosphere in a way I can’t remember another regular season game having.

Con: Sixers defense shredded by Brooklyn

It’s hard to argue that at this point, the Sixers are a better all-around team than the Nets. In fact, several teams are. 

But let me tell you, this is not a team anyone will be comfortable facing in the playoffs. And it’s for an obvious reason: they have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. There will be teams better on paper than Brooklyn, but when you get down to the matchups, it becomes frightening to imagine crafting a defensive gameplan that accounts for both of those guys.

Tonight, the Sixers’ worst fears came to life, as they had no answers for Brooklyn’s high-octane offense. 

Durant spent most of his time defended by either Tobias Harris or Georges Niang, and Irving was excellent despite the best efforts of Matisse Thybulle. Even when they add Danny Green, who is currently nursing a finger injury, they lack the defensive firepower to compete with Brooklyn’s elite units.

I’m not necessarily predicting that the Nets are going to win the championship, or even that they’d beat the Sixers in a playoff series. But after tonight, it’s not hard to see why so many teams fear a healthy Brooklyn team.

Con: The Sixers’ star duo struggles mightily

Harden has been absolutely dominant pretty much from the jump since joining the Sixers.

Tonight, he was… less dominant. Harden shot just 3-17 from the field, including an almost unbelievable 0-10 line on two-point attempts. He only dished out five assists and turned it over four times.

And somehow, the eye test was every bit as discouraging as the box score line. Harden spent the entirety of the game failing to generate good looks for anyone, including himself, and missing many of the shots you can typically count on him to knock down.

Unfortunately, things don’t end there. Joel Embiid’s 19 free throw attempts represented the one positive sign from the offense all night long, and he failed to register a single free throw attempt in the second half altogether. 

From the field, Embiid was uncharacteristically poor, going a putrid 5-17 from the floor, including four turnovers to just two assists.

This is not a sign of things to come. We will rarely see either player struggle as much as they did tonight, let alone both of them in the same game. 

But in the end, it comes down to this: Brooklyn’s duo of superstars came ready to show out. Embiid and Harden did not.