Philadelphia 76ers: Turnovers, bad offense caused collapse vs. Orlando Magic
The Philadelphia 76ers love a good mid-game collapse. Take an in-depth look at what went wrong in their most recent breakdown in Orlando.
Jimmy Butler‘s first game as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers went well until the fourth quarter came along. Joel Embiid hit a three to put his team up 92-76 with 10:42 left in the game, and it looked like one of the final nails in the coffin for the Magic, but the Sixers did not score for the next 4:03 of the game.
Nikola Vucevic turning into Embiid for the quarter did not help Philly, but the Sixers did not do themselves any favors with their play on offense. Butler entered the game with 8:51 seconds left and played until the final buzzer, but he did not score in the entire quarter.
Oddly enough, neither Butler nor Embiid had the chance to get an isolation bucket in crunch time. Brett Brown tried hard to involve all five players on each possession, but he needed to realize that sometimes the best way to score is to give it to one of your two top-15 players in the NBA.
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Embiid struggled mightily in the fourth quarter, particularly during the Magic’s run, as a defensive miscommunication between him and Ben Simmons led to a wide-open Vucevic three to bring the Magic within two points with eight minutes left. Additionally, Jonathan Isaac rejected his dunk attempt which launched a fast-break leading to a Terrence Ross three.
At that point in the quarter, the Magic were riding a 17-0 run and the Sixers had not scored for three whole minutes of game time.
Oddly enough, Brown insisted on keeping Embiid out on the perimeter on every possession, refusing to even use him as a decoy in the low post. Brown has done that before and it has not worked, and keeping the league’s best low post scorer 20 feet away from the basket in crunch time is not a good strategy.
Terrance Ross hit another three with 7:12 left in the fourth, and Brown subbed Embiid out then as a result, opting for a puzzling lineup of Simmons, Butler, Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, and Mike Muscala. A Wilson Chandler floater off a drive ended the run for the Philadelphia 76ers with 6:29 left in the game, and it also gives an indication as to what could have happened if Brown let Butler or Embiid take a defender one-on-one.
The Sixers have two players in the top-10 for points in clutch situations this season: Embiid has 34 points in 47 minutes of clutch time and J.J. Redick has 28 points in the same amount of time. Taking both of them off the floor in the most important part of the game is inexcusable and another example of Brown making poor personnel and strategic decisions when it matters most.
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The Orlando Magic ended up winning the game 111-106, and that outcome reflects the game well considering how the Sixers mostly beat themselves in the fourth quarter. Now that Philly has arguably three top-20 players in the league, Brown needs to learn to trust his stars and his shooters and let them do what they do best in order to avoid these letdowns.