Pros and Cons: Sixers vs. Knicks
The Sixers in The Garden.
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.
After a win in Oklahoma City, the Sixers headed to the world’s most famous arena to face the resurgent New York Knicks. Let’s get to Pros and Cons:
Pro: Second unit shows some late life
After a brutal second quarter in which they were torched by the Knicks, the Sixers’ second unit lineups surged late in the game to stay competitive for the rest of the game. Furkan Korkmaz did a solid job initiating offense, and the Sixers got some timely threes from Georges Niang, among others. Niang in particular had a very good performance on both ends.
After a brutal first half on offense, Matisse Thybulle redeemed himself by changing the game for a brief period with his incredible defense, wreaking havoc off the ball, both with his rearview contests and ability to jump in passing lanes.
It ultimately wasn’t enough to get them the win, but the Sixers’ bench showed some toughness late in tonight’s game, and that means something… right?
Con: Sixers defense gets torched
Typically, I’d like to focus on one or two specific players or facets of the game in which the team needed to get better production. But tonight, the entire defense was brutal. Yes, the Knicks did shoot at an unsustainably hot clip from beyond the arc, but not only were many of those shots open, but the Sixers also simply failed to even come close to matching New York’s intensity and effort levels for most of the game. Outside of a few standout plays by Thybulle, the team put in a poor defensive performance tonight.
Con: Sixers offense takes a step back as well
When you face a team that shoots as well as the Knicks did from three-point range, you need a nearly flawless performance on offense to keep up. It’s understandable that the Sixers couldn’t keep up with the red-hot Knicks.
With that being said, the Sixers looked extremely disjointed on offense for most of the game. Whether it was Joel Embiid failing to get anything going from the field, the shooters not named Danny Green struggling mightily or an overall vanilla scheme from Doc Rivers, the signs were much more discouraging than encouraging.
Not as concerning but even more impactful was the manner in which the Sixers struggled from beyond the arc. Their shooting was abysmal up until the very end of the game.
I’m far from hitting the panic button, but against a team with a decent amount of suspect defensive players, the Sixers’ offense was bland and unproductive.