The new faces demonstrated their value to the Philadelphia 76ers in a win over the Timberwolves.
In Ish Smith‘s first game in Philadelphia after being traded, he ended the game with a message: These aren’t the Philadelphia 76ers you’re used to.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were the victims of Ish’s heady play and ice in his veins, losing to the Sixers by ten points in their only visit to Philadelphia this year.
The entire game was a close contest, with both teams giving their all to win this game. The first half showed a frustrated Jahlil Okafor, where he ended with only two points but his rookie counterpart in Karl-Anthony Towns matched his output. It was clear that Minnesota’s defensive gameplan was to stifle Jahlil as much as possible; whenever he got the ball, a second defender always came down to help once he started his dribble. Though Jah mostly made the correct play by not forcing the issue when extra defenders came, he could not get into a good rhythm against this defense giving up the ball a couple of times.
Fortunately the rest of the team was able to pick up the offensive slack. Led by Ish the offense was humming, including a couple of alley-oops to Nerlens Noel. I can’t stress enough how much better the offense looks with Ish steering the ship.
Compared to Ish, Isaiah Canaan relied on his jumper too much, T.J. McConnell didn’t have the handles to consistently penetrate, Tony Wroten was too reckless, and Kendall Marshall not yet up to speed after his surgery.
The team now has more purpose when going into their offense, knowing that they will get the ball in better positions to score, which is evidenced by the 52.4% shooting in the first half.
Other than some mind-boggling turnovers from the Sixers, the second half was a good one for them. When the Sixers started stagnating, Jahlil picked up his offense and kept the team afloat. Other new additions to the team aside from Ish, Richaun Holmes (drafted this year) and Carl Landry (acquired via trade in the offseason) were offensive catalysts for Philly. Each set an important tone in their own way to guild the Sixers: Richaun brought energy and hustle, while Carl brought the veteran calm. Nerlens and Jerami Grant also got defensive with a couple of huge blocks in the fourth to boost the energy of the team.
This was the best overall team game the Sixers have played all season. Despite their usual offensive talisman in Jahlil not playing his best, the entire team came alive and chipped in to the win. Players were executing and hustling, aggravating the T’Wolves in the most important time of the game, sealing the win in Philadelphia.
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Player of the Game
There were many candidates for the award, but it inevitably has to go to Ish Smith. He was the team’s commander-in-chief throughout the game, even with Alaa Abdelnaby and Marc Zumoff singing his praises when he closed out the game. The comfort level that Ish seems to have with the entire team was in full view tonight and he was the main ingredient on making the Sixers play together so well tonight, even with Jahlil not having a big impact on the game.
During the last game against the T’Wolves the Sixers gave up a late lead in Minneapolis, but this night Ish was able to ice the game with a flurry of jump shots and fadeaways. This level of late-game confidence was missing with the Sixers all season, and now they have a guy who has the ability to protect leads the team worked so hard to build.
Looking Ahead
The Sixers continue their homestand with a game against the Atlanta Hawks this coming Thursday. Though the Hawks aren’t soaring quite as high as last year, they are still clearly in the playoff picture in the East. Can Philadelphia prove their mettle against a team whose coach also came from the Gregg Popovich tree in Mike Budenholzer?