February 01, 2016
Matt Slocum/AP
This has nothing to do with the article, but I just think it's a good picture.
The Philadelphia 76ers spent a good chunk of Monday’s practice watching film of late-game situations. Recent close losses to Golden State, Chicago, and New York were mixed in with footage of veteran teams like the Miami Heat closing out games.
In a way, this new emphasis shows the real improvements that the team has made over the past month. Where earlier in the season Brett Brown may have been strictly focused on fundamentals, the Sixers are now trying to fine-tune some details.
I wrote about the Sixers’ defensive strategy on Harrison Barnes’ dagger three on Saturday, and unsurprisingly, it seems like Brown’s focus was on that end of the floor.
“To give us a better chance to really execute on defense,” Nerlens Noel said of the film session’s aim. “When the ball is in their hands, to not let their best player make the play but still giving us the best opportunity of still winning the game.”
Against a team like Golden State, the best offense in the league by a mile, there are few easy decisions. The Sixers like to use the “Anybody but…” rule, but it has burned them as couple times. On the flip side, Carmelo Anthony drilled a tying three in Noel’s face when they defended the Knicks straight up at the end of the game on MLK Day.
Should the Sixers have at least fouled Golden State and made them inbound again, though? Brown thinks so, but he also knows it is much easier said than done.
“The ability to use a foul to give, if you sat at a desk, it would make more sense,” Brown said. “But when you’re in the game in real time as a player and coach, how do you use that foul?”
From covering the team for over a year now, I can confidently say that there is a lethargic vibe in the Wells Fargo Center when the Sixers are losing. And as everybody knows, they lose fairly frequently. That said, even if the building is only two-thirds full, the crowd will usually get pretty into the game when the underdog Sixers are competitive.
Over the past year, the arena has never been louder than Isaiah Canaan’s four-point play and Ish Smith’s steal to tie the game against Golden State on Saturday:
Smith thought the Bulls overtime game from a few weeks ago was the only time that compared in terms of electricity.
“[They] were telling me that’s how it was back in the A.I. days,” Smith said. “It was fun, a great atmosphere. That’s the loudest I ever heard it.”
That 2001 playoff run was good times, with the building rocking and rolling every night. Much of that excitement had to do with Allen Iverson’s larger than life presence, but Saturday was a reminder that if the Sixers ever become an elite team again, Philadelphia will embrace them. Oh, and Ron Brooks will become the new Kate Smith.
The crowd gave the home team a loud ovation just for providing them a game against a juggernaut:
Speaking of Iverson, Noel thought the last time the building was amped up to Golden State levels was the night that The Answer’s number was retired back in March 2014.
“So much energy in that arena that helped us and really willed us back into that game,” Noel said. “This really brings us all together to know that they really appreciate playing as hard as we did and being relentless.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
