The small ball revolution that seems to be taking the entire NBA by storm has been heavily avoided by the Philadelphia 76ers, but when they had to go to it, it worked well for them.
The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the few teams left in the NBA that refuse to let their future have the words “small ball” involved. With their future resting on the skills of talented big men like Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, and Joel Embiid, their foundation has been set as one that will be focused around big men, not a smaller lineup. Despite that fact and the fact that they have drafted mostly big men with their first round picks the past few seasons, they have had some success running smaller lineups.
Some of that success showed on Sunday night against the Miami Heat. The Sixers went into this game quite shorthanded and on the road. Nik Stauskas, Nerlens Noel, and Jahlil Okafor all did not make the trip down to South Beach due to injuries. Without some of their best players, the Sixers seemed to be at a disadvantage. And going up against Hassan Whiteside, who has had incredible success as a big man this year, the Sixers looked as if they were primed to get blown out without their primary rim protector in Nerlens Noel or primary scorer in Jahlil Okafor.
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Due to the nature of players available, Brett Brown often had to go with smaller lineups. The only true big men at his disposal were Elton Brand, Carl Landry (some don’t even consider Landry to be a big man), and Richaun Holmes. Brand played just over 6 minutes, and Landry played 26 while being named as a starter. The Sixers starting lineup was the group we saw most often on the floor, with Landry, Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson, Jerami Grant, and Ish Smith.
The Sixers would not go on to win this game, but they did play much better basketball than they have in any other game since coming back from the All-Star break. The Sixers, still winless since the break ended, have given up over 116 points per game in the last 10 games. They have struggled to play or even show signs of good defense, and teams have been taking advantage of that, scoring as many as 130 points on the Sixers.
On Sunday, though, the Sixers held Miami to just 103 points, which is tied for the least amount of points given up since coming back from the break. They kept up with the Heat and were running shot-for-shot with them throughout the fourth quarter, even with an incredibly small lineup. Miami, just as we’ve seen plenty of teams do this season, turned on their jets in the fourth quarter and ended up taking the game in the final minutes, but Philly played hard until the final buzzer. Hassan Whiteside did take advantage of the smaller lineup with some big moves in the key, but Jerami Grant did a good job defending some of his shots. Grant finished the game with 2 blocks, but was still far away from Whiteside’s 7.
Another component that shouldn’t be ignored is that Philly played two consecutive games against Miami, making it a more comfortable opponent for them when they played them on Sunday.
It’s hard not to think that the Sixers would have taken this game if Nerlens and Jah were available, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that they probably would have lost either way. All of the chemistry issues have come in the frontcourt, so when that is taken out of the equation, it makes sense that the team as a whole plays better.
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Small ball isn’t the future for Philly, but it’s worth noting that some of the players on the team function well in a small-ball unit.