The Sixer Sense
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The Sixers Have Been Incredible on Defense, Terrible on Offense

By Josh Wilson

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The Philadelphia 76ers have been winning games lately, and have done so with incredible defense. It’s been good enough to cover up the awful offense.

With all the pieces the Philadelphia 76ers have in place, one would think that their young core will be one to compete with the league’s best offenses by putting on a shootout for the world to watch. While that very may will happen once Ben Simmons debuts for the team and the roster is more solid, for now, the team’s offense is nothing that can lead the way to won games.

That might sound a bit odd to fans who have watched the Sixers as of late, because the Sixers have been incredible in the last several games. Over the team’s last seven contests, the Sixers have gone 5-2, and have done well enough over the last few weeks to nearly be .500 if you choose to ignore their 0-7 start.

It’s been all defense, though, that has helped the Sixers win these games. Of course, games are won by offense in virtue — whoever scores the most points wins the game — but if you can’t outdo your opponent on the offensive end, you better make sure you can stop them from scoring.

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In a league that has been taken over by offense, defense is a lost art. The primetime, nationally televised games often showcase the teams who are going to score 115+ points per game, because that’s what’s exciting for fans to watch. The Sixers are putting an emphasis on their defense, and that’s paying off.

Considering those last seven games (where the Sixers are fifth in the league in win percentage), the Sixers are fifth in points allowed in the paint, fifth in rebounds, fourth around the league in blocks, fourth in points given up, third in opponent field goal percentage, and first in defensive rating.

Those numbers are impressive, especially for the Sixers, who have been the laughingstock of the league defensively over the last few years. While the Sixers haven’t been necessarily bad on the defensive end the last few years — the Sixers closed the year as the 11th best team in terms of defensive rating last year — they haven’t done a great job limiting their opponents points scored. They were 29th last season in opponent points given up, 20th the year prior, and dead last the year before that.

This year, that seems to be changing. The fundamentals are in place on the defensive end, and they’re working. All the while, the team’s offense has been downright terrible, bad enough to say that the Sixers might not have even deserved to win those games that they won.

Over those same seven games where the Sixers were so great on defense, they ranked 27th in points per game, 28th in field goal percentage, and 29th in offensive rating. Those numbers would be downright alarming if it weren’t for the fact that the Sixers are winning while putting up those numbers offensively.

Defense wins games. That much has been proven over the last seven.

The highlight of this string of games was the Sixers’ win over the Toronto Raptors earlier this week. The 28-14 Raptors are second in the Eastern Conference in terms of overall record, and their 111.0 points per game is seventh in the league.

The Sixers held that same team to 89 points. The only team to hold them to a lower point total so far this season was the San Antonio Spurs, who held them to 82 on January 3rd, a game where the Spurs held all starters aside from DeMar DeRozan to 10 points or less, with two of those starters scoring just two points.

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Perhaps what’s even more impressive than the Sixers winning in the last seven games is the turnaround they’ve made this season. In the first 20 games of the season, where the Sixers went 4-16, the team had a defensive rating of 109.6. Since then, the Sixers have improved that to 105.6, going 10-10 in the most recent 20 games. Of those 10 wins, six of those were with the Sixers putting up a defensive rating of below 100.

The point is made — defense is working, but just why is it working?

One of the main points to be made is that Jahlil Okafor, one of the many big men that the Sixers have on their roster, has not played much at all over those seven games. Okafor is an offensively minded center who often seems lazy on the defensive end, not putting his large frame to much use.

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But aside from that, the Sixers are really just getting everyone involved on defense. T.J. McConnell is being a nuisance to opposing guards, as always. Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid are protecting the rim. We’re seeing players like Dario Saric thrive in help defense situations. Robert Covington still is nearly a league-leader in deflections.

The offense will come as the team develops, but the foundation the Sixers have with their defense is good. Building around that is a must, as it’s taken the Sixers from being a bottom-five team in the NBA to a top-five team.