Pros and Cons: Sixers vs. Suns
The good and bad from Sixers-Suns.
Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
In hopes of sweeping their three-game west coast road trip, the Sixers traveled to Phoenix to face a Suns squad that has been the league’s best team all year long. Here’s what stood out to me tonight:
Pro: Tobias Harris takes charge in first half
Harris had another encouraging showing tonight, this time tearing Phoenix’s wings to shreds during the first half.
Harris dominated for a significant portion of the second quarter in what was one of his better performances of the season. Whether it was knocking down a three, getting to the rim or scoring in the mid-range, he was able to put his stamp on this one in more than one fashion.
His second half was not as exciting as his first half, but as Doc Rivers tweaks his substitution patterns ahead of the playoffs, Harris asserting himself as someone who can go to work against second unit lineups would be absolutely massive.
Once this team gets to the playoffs, the key will be surviving when Joel Embiid is off the floor. The bulk of the responsibility there belongs to James Harden. But if Harris can lend a helping hand in those minutes, this team instantly becomes much more difficult to beat.
Con: Harden fails to keep the Sixers afloat in fourth quarter
As I mentioned earlier, everything the Sixers are doing right now should be done with the goal of being able to be competitive when Embiid is off the floor.
Tonight, while Embiid rested to start the fourth quarter as usual, Harden-centric lineups failed to generate good looks on offense and surrendered far too many of them to Phoenix.
Harden was 2-11 from the field tonight, including 0-6 from two-point range.
It’s unfair to put all of that responsibility on Harden -- the Sixers are playing without competent backup center play and have other high-usage scorers available.
But for Harden more than anyone else, not being brutalized in these non-Embiid minutes -- particularly in the fourth quarter -- is a job that must be figured out.
Pro: The Sixers draw lots of fouls -- deal with it!
This isn’t exactly specific to tonight’s game, though it does apply — and it’s something I feel compelled to weigh in on
When the Sixers traded for Harden and paired him with Embiid, we knew the Sixers’ offense would be reliant on foul-drawing. Harden and Embiid are possibly the league’s two best players when it comes to getting to the line.
Tonight, the Sixers drew 15 fouls in the first half alone -- including three different Phoenix starters reaching three fouls and three different Phoenix reserves collecting two of them. However much Sixers fans enjoy this, one thing I am certain of is that opposing teams and fans hate it twice as much.
There has been a lot of talk recently about whether or not this team’s offense is truly elite, in part because it is to some extent predicated upon free throws. Much of the discourse, predictably, has been nonsensical.
Here is the bottom line: the Sixers have two players who are so good at scoring the basketball and so good at manipulating their defenders that opposing teams are forced to foul them repeatedly so that they don’t allow easy baskets every time down the floor.
Being fouled is not some sort of luck-based phenomenon. It is directly derived from skill and IQ, both of which Harden and Embiid have to the fullest extent. The Sixers’ offense being engineered by “free throw merchants” is not a negative thing, it is merely an annoying thing for the Sixers’ competition.