November 21, 2016
To say that Robert Covington can’t throw the ball in the ocean would be an understatement if there were actually any larger bodies of water. Through 14 games, the fourth-year swingman is shooting just 24.4 percent from three and 26.2 percent overall. And strange as it may seem from the outside, the home crowd has been loudly booing a player making peanuts (at least by NBA standards) the last few nights.
Fair? I don’t know. Productive? Almost assuredly not, but the fans know Covington is capable of shooting much better.
On Monday against the Miami Heat, despite going through another brutal shooting night (he was 2-11 through three quarters), Covington found himself on the floor in crunch time. And with the Sixers holding a two-point lead late, Gerald Henderson drove the lane and kicked out to a wide-open Covington on the right wing for an in-rhythm three-pointer.
And after the ball rattled in, those boos turned into a loud roar:
"YES!" @marczumoff #SixersTalk https://t.co/GiwjcwxkCz
— CSN Philly (@CSNPhilly) November 22, 2016
Prior to Monday, the Sixers’ last consecutive wins were all the way back on March 18th and 20th of 2015. Since then, there has been a whole lot of losing. The state of the center position tells you how much has happened: Nerlens Noel was on the floor in those games, Jahlil Okafor was playing in March Madness, and Joel Embiid had yet to even reinjure his foot. But with a 101-94 win over the Heat, the Sixers picked up back-to-back victories and wins in three of their last four.
“It was a great relief for me just to see a ball go in,” Covington said after the game. “But my main focus was that even though I wasn’t knocking down shots, I was going to give maximum effort on the other end. Coach challenged me and told me that just because your shot isn’t falling, that doesn’t mean you can’t impact the game in other ways.”
And the Covster is doing just that, as he contributed nine rebounds, three steals, and was a plus-8 in his 31 minutes despite the shooting woes. Those numbers don’t capture how hard Covington played at all times, and for Brett Brown, it was an easy decision to keep him in the game. The shooting is a big deal and it has to improve, but he was doing literally everything else right.
“To stay with him, to encourage him, it was easy for me because he guards,” Brown said.
Just like Covington on an individual level, the team was able to get the job done despite a pretty flawed performance. Most glaringly, the Sixers got destroyed by Miami on the defensive glass. Their initial defense was pretty good all night — The Heat shot just 38.6 percent from the field — but they were only able to grab 61.1 percent of Miami’s misses. Even with a number of long rebounds off jumpers, that number is far too high.
Hassan Whiteside was the main beneficiary, finishing with a career-high 32 points to go along with 13 rebounds. But when it mattered most, the Sixers were able to get stops. Goran Dragic tied the score at 91 with 3:38 left in the fourth quarter, and then then Heat were held scoreless until there was one second left in the game.
What also happened at 3:38? Joel Embiid checked back into the game, which isn’t a coincidence. After some trying late-game moments in the first few weeks, The Process has turned into The Closer.
“It’s really fun and exciting,” Embiid said of securing another home win. “One thing I always have in mind is, ‘Make the fans happy.’ So especially at home, we want to win every game we can.”
Embiid was responsible for some (not all) of Whiteside’s production, but he did have some success on the other end. Embiid finished with an efficient 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks in a little over 23 minutes. Ho-hum, nothing to see here:
“Since high school, that’s always how I’ve gotten better, getting my ass busted.” Embiid said of going up against other top big men. “I learn from that, so it’s always good to just go out and play against someone who can just go on me and score on me. It’s a learning process and you got to trust it.”
There were a couple of notable performances in the Sixers backcourt. Henderson was questionable coming into the game because he felt under the weather, but he decided to have his own mini (and I do mean mini) version of “The Flu Game.” The Episcopal Academy product scored 19 points on a very efficient 6-8 shooting, line-driving in all three of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Jerryd Bayless made his season debut coming off the bench. It’s clear that he’s still playing through pain in that left wrist, and the 28-year-old point guard struggled mightily from the field (1-7 FG). Despite that, Bayless was able to settle down in the second half and make some nice passes (five assists) to Okafor (15 points) in the pick-and-roll.
“Since high school, that’s always how I’ve gotten better, getting my ass busted. I learn from that, so it’s always good to just go out and play against someone who can just go on me and score on me."
“It’s the first time I played [outside of D-League practices] since the first day of training camp,” Bayless admitted after the game. “It’s going to take a little bit just to get back into a flow.”
Last season, the Sixers picked up their fourth win on January 4th. And while their home schedule toughens up quite a bit starting Wednesday against Memphis, Covington and the team as a whole can take something from winning while not playing their best.
“I’m never going to stop playing, no matter what,” Covington said. “I’m not going to hang my head just because I’m not making shots. I’m going to make something happen on the defensive end until I get my opportunities on the offensive end.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
