For the first time since Brett Brown’s inaugural season, the Philadelphia 76ers are 2-0.
A game that didn’t include each team’s best player. Blake Griffin struggling with hamstring issues, and Joel Embiid missing the game due to a right ankle sprain. With two main stars out, that means other players have to step up big and that’s exactly what happened.
The Pistons led 57-54 at halftime, after an abysmal first half from the Philadelphia 76ers. Sloppy offense and the lack of effort on the defensive end did that (also Furkan Korkmaz was just awful). The offense just didn’t seem to click at all, with very poor turnovers and no movement at all in the first half.
The beginning of the second half wasn’t any better, with the Detroit Pistons going on a 13-3 run to start the half. Finally, after a timely Brett Brown timeout to stop the run, the Sixers started playing like they wanted to win.
The offense flowed a lot more nicely, and things finally seemed to work for the Sixers. All starting with Harris and Simmons connecting on two alley-oop plays alongside two critical threes that cut the deficit short. The Harris and Simmons chemistry seems to be growing quite nicely.
There is also another connection brewing between Sixers players. Horford and Ben Simmons are the perfect duo. Simmons driving to the rim forces teams to close on him, always leaving Al Horford with open looks. This play will be instrumental for the Sixers moving forward, and has already been in strong display in the first two games. It actually played a huge role in the fourth quarter, giving Big Al all the space to work with and score in the fourth.
Josh Richardson didn’t have a memorable game, not hitting a single three-point shot and only scoring 10 points total. Defensively, as usual he is doing a great job.
Shake Milton did a great job off the bench, playing very aggressive scoring 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting. Shake made the most of his playing time after replacing Furkan in the second half. It’ll be surprising to see Furkan crack a rotation spot again, after Shake’s performance and Furkan continuously failing to hit threes.
Raul Neto also looked very good for the short time he was on the court with four points and two assists in only six minutes.
Overall the Sixers don’t look as great as we thought they’d be, they still have a lot to figure out offensively. It’s only the second game, but hopefully in the third game we finally start seeing the offense flow a little better.