Brett Brown didn’t call a timeout for the Philadelphia 76ers‘ last possession against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night. Was that the right decision?
Thursday night’s loss to the Sacramento Kings was a tough one for Philadelphia 76ers fans. Neither Ben Simmons nor Joel Embiid were particularly great by their standards, while Robert Covington‘s offensive explosion overshadowed what was an ugly basketball game from start to finish.
It was, in fact, ugly enough to keep the Kings in the game — despite some long stretches of offensive dysfunction. Sacramento actually held a seven point lead at the half, and would end up walking away with the win. That was thanks to a go-ahead mid-range jumper from De’Aaron Fox, who knocked that shot down with 13.4 seconds left. Sacramento was up one point.
With ample time left, Brett Brown decided to forgo a timeout in favor of letting his guys ad lib the possession. That ended up with the clock winding down and Embiid missing a turnaround jumper that inevitably clanked off the rim.
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It was hard to swallow that one, and Brett Brown’s decision to not use a timeout was part of the reason why. There’s solid reasoning on both sides of the debate here.
Giving Ben Simmons the ball and asking him to create could lead to a collapsing defense and open passing lane to the perimeter. That’s always a possibility with him. It’s also possible that a timeout would have allowed Brett Brown to get an open shooter coming out of a specific set, or at the very least give Embiid more favorable positioning with more time on the clock.
When you’re down one with over 13 seconds left, the shot shouldn’t come at the buzzer. Redick passed up an look earlier in the possession, and a broken play and lack of execution is obviously what followed. It also led to Embiid taking a shot that’s outside his wheelhouse. Embiid is plenty versatile for his size, but as we’ve seen this season, asking him to dribble and create extensively from mid-range can get dicey.
Either throwing JoJo into a pick-and-pop or gunning for a J.J. Redick/Covington shot may have been better, which is especially true when you consider how well Covington was shooting that night. They only needed two, but sometimes the best shot comes from the hottest hand in his hottest spots.
Covington and Redick are two of the best set shooters in the league so far this season. They’re among the genuine elite when it comes to running off screens and hitting quick catch-and-shoot or one-dribble shots.
This wasn’t a transition opportunity either. It wasn’t Simmons pushing the ball ahead of the fastbreak with numbers. It was Sacramento getting a chance to set their defense and dig in for 13 seconds, something that makes it inherently difficult to get off a quality, uncontested shot.
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Philadelphia’s lack of individual creation plays into this as well. Aside from Embiid’s post brilliance, there isn’t an elite isolation scorer on this team. Simmons doesn’t pose a threat outside the painted area, and Saric has his highest success rate as either a cutter or when spotting up.
They don’t have somebody who can, under pressure, go out there and create a good look at any level. They have elite off-ball shooters and a couple of players capable of getting them the ball in the right spot. That’s just begging for a quality out-of-timeout play.
Embiid has been inconsistent from mid-range, and not getting proper ball or player movement on that final possession made it difficult for Redick to find what he deemed a good enough look on the outside. It was Embiid taking things into his own hands in a spot he isn’t comfortable. That’s just not the best way to overcome what were already unfavorable odds.
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This is still a young team, so the Sixers’ late-game execution should improve as the season goes on. But this is a case where they could have benefited from a timeout, and Brown — who is still an above-average coach — may have made a mistake.