After three games with the Sixers, PJ Tucker felt a wake-up call around 8:30 Saturday night would be appropriate.
The Sixers went 0-3 after losing to the Spurs at the Wells Fargo Center.
“I’ve been through these things and honestly I’m not ready yet,” head coach Doc Rivers said. No. You can feel it, so we have a lot of work to do.After playing hard and competing the first two games, we were like, ‘Okay, we can win a few games. I felt it. You still have to go out and win the game.
“Tuck yelled that after the game and he was right. No one is going to give you the win. You gotta get it — and you gotta do it a lot.” No. Every night.You don’t get to choose when it shows up.And now that’s what we do.”
As usual, there are many explanations for the team’s very disappointing start to the season.
“On defense, we were slow – we were behind,” Rivers said. I thought, we got the ball (Tyrese Maxie) and he went on the floor, I thought James[Harden]pushed more in the second half, but the pace is bad. Offensively, we’re always going against the clock, but that’s not what we have. …We have a lot of work to do.”
Rivers’ characterization of the Sixers’ pace was not overly negative.
the team sits Last in the NBA in its category. So far, 85.8% of the Sixers’ plays have been on the half court. glass cleaning, A number that also ranks in the 30th place. Only 11% of them played in transition, the worst in the Eastern Conference.
A more aggressive defense that forces turnovers and induces transitions Sounded like reasonable ambition before the regular seasonbut the Sixers have yet to adopt that style successfully.
Tobias Harris said: “We’re short on defense today. We have to give them credit. They shot tough. Not the standard, 35 points in the 2nd quarter, 31 points in the 3rd.Our standard is 25 or less.That’s not how we know we can defend.
De’Anthony Melton also highlighted the Sixers’ effort and communication in Saturday morning’s shootaround, but neither was abundant in the evening. For Tucker, it’s clear why this type of basketball is intolerable.
Four key players acquired by the Sixers in the offseason — Tucker, Melton, Danuel House Jr. and Montrez Harrell — scored a total of five points against San Antonio on 2-for-7 shooting of 70 minutes.
“Honestly, not a lot,” Harris said of the challenges associated with integrating new players. No. Defensively too, we have players who can play defense and it’s up to us to figure out how to keep the ball forward and fight each other when we can be caught off guard and thrown off balance.
“To say ‘rookie, this and that,’ yeah, it takes time to build chemistry, but on the offensive and defensive side, it’s pretty basic.”
A solid encapsulation of the Sixers’ night came during the 19-second stretch of the third quarter.
Maxxie attempted to throw a sideline out-of-bounds pass to Tucker on the right wing, but Keldon Johnson stepped in for a deflection, disrupting normal play. The ball leaked out of bounds after missing both Tucker and Maxie. Then the Spurs came down to the court and played a pick-and-roll with Josh Primo and Gorgi Dien. The problem was that Maxie also kept chasing the 19-year-old guard, wrapping the pass around the unguarded Dien and dunking it easily. Harrell looked at Maxxie in disbelief.
This sort of sequence doesn’t happen often on a winning team in the NBA, regardless of staff, and the 2022-23 Sixers still don’t.
Meanwhile, their next opponent just did. The Pacers defeated the Pistons on Saturday with a 24-point, 10-assist performance from Tyrese Halliburton and a 27-point game from rookie Benedict Maturin.
The two teams undefeated in the Eastern Conference participating in Monday night’s action are the Magic and the Sixers.
