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.
We love back-to-backs, don’t we folks? Significantly undermanned, the Sixers headed to Detroit to face the Pistons in the second leg of their first back-to-back of the season. Let’s get to Pros and Cons:
Pro: Paul Reed + Andre Drummond = success?
Because of their brutal injury report, the Sixers were forced to play an eight-man rotation, with that eighth and final player being BBall Paul.
With Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons unavailable, the Sixers needed someone with size at power forward other than Georges Niang. And in a tough spot, Reed gave them some good minutes.
Reed was particularly good on the defensive end, where he did a good job of moving his feet and avoiding foul trouble. He also gave the Sixers a much-needed boost on the boards, grabbing nine rebounds in his 14 minutes.
The duo was particularly effective early on: in nine first-half minutes when Reed and Drummond shared the floor, the Sixers outscored the Pistons by 11.
Drummond was his typical self, making a few erratic plays but all in all being helpful in several facets of the game on both ends of the floor. He has continued to show off a wide array of abilities, and had another solid game despite some odd boos from the Detroit crowd.
Con: Matisse Thybulle’s offensive struggles
I’m not breaking any news here when I say that Thybulle is a defensive-oriented player. And he was tonight, as he is nearly every night, excellent on that end of the floor. But his offense, which frankly is pretty brutal for a third-year player, continues to make things difficult for the Sixers.
For a team that is almost exclusively playing guys who help their floor spacing, Thybulle is the weakest link, as his defenders don’t have to worry about much outside of the occasional back-cut for a dunk. Thybulle’s shooting hasn’t come around since his hot start in his rookie season.
Thybulle is a remarkable prospect, and he might be the best young defensive player I have ever seen. But his lack of utility on offense makes it very hard for me to imagine him closing high-leverage games. Doc Rivers has successfully utilized offense-defense substitutions in the past, but outside of that, you have to be concerned about how playoff defenses will treat Thybulle.
Pro: Seth Curry continues outrageous run
I almost wanted to skip over this, because we’ve all been constantly talking about how good Curry has been of late. But tonight’s performance was too good to ignore — Curry scored 23 points on 14 shots, including 4-8 from three-point range.
Curry is doing it in all situations and all environments — he’s getting off to hot starts and knocking down shots late in games, he’s scoring at the rim, from beyond the arc and from everywhere in between, he’s scoring at the end of the shot clock and in transition.
Curry’s ridiculously hot shooting will have to cool down at some point (at least you’d think!). But that has yet to happen, so let’s enjoy this torrid streak while we still can. We’re witnessing one of the greatest shooters in NBA history at the peak of his powers. Bravo, Seth Curry.