November 17, 2016

No Embiid? No problem for Okafor and the Sixers

By Matt Mullin
PhillyVoice Staff

Matt Slocum/AP

Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor played well in place of Joel Embiid.

A funny thing happened to the Sixers on Wednesday night: They won back-to-back home games for the first time in 607 days, beating the Wizards, 109-102, to improve to 2-9 on the season.

Stranger yet was that the win came without Joel Embiid — and foul trouble limited an already restricted Jahlil Okafor to 20 minutes. But the biggest void on the Wells Fargo Center court wasn’t the one left by the rookie seven footer. That likely belonged to Wizards guard Bradley Beal.

Washington’s second-leading scorer missed his third straight game with a hamstring injury and was replaced by rookie Sheldon McClellan, who finished with just six points on 2-of-7 shooting in 20 minutes. And the team’s leading scorer, John Wall, was on a minutes restriction of his own; he played just 24 minutes but still finished with 27 points and six assists.

Down the stretch, the Sixers were able to hold off Wall and the rest of the Wizards to finally close out a game — but not before almost surrendering a 24-point lead.

Still, their head coach more than pleased following the win.

“I think our guys showed excellent poise,” Brett Brown said. “I think that there was just a poise level that was fantastic. Our guys learned how to win a close game.

“We go overboard on what it’s going to take to close out a game. We know that if we’re going to win it’s not because we’re beating anybody by 20. I think most importantly we played the game out defensively. We really were on point with our defensive assignments, of when you’re going to switch and when you’re not. I just thought that they did a good job of keeping their composure.”

Composure … and Richaun Holmes daggers.

Richaun Holmes with the huge three to expand the Sixers lead! #SixersTalk https://t.co/5yaiV305hu
— CSN Philly (@CSNPhilly) November 17, 2016

That’s part of the reason the Sixers were able to win, despite the absence of their leading scorer. They got solid play out of their other big men.

Holmes finished with 8 points on 3-of-3 shooting and added 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and a pair of assists in 19 minutes. Ersan Ilysova put up 16 points (4-8 3PT) and 4 rebounds in 26 minutes. And Dario Saric, who Brown called “a bull,” added a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) in his first game coming off the bench. It also didn’t hurt that they got 15 points on eight shots from Nik Stauskas.

But it was their second-year center who, despite his foul troubles, led the way on Wednesday.

“I think there’s something to be said about that, to get a win without Joel,” Brown added. “And [Okafor] was a major contributor.”

Okafor finished with 19 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists in 20 minutes. He was expected to play around 24 minutes — and was on pace to do so — but foul trouble cut his night short. Embiid, meanwhile, could only watch as he got the night off with the team playing Thursday in Minnesota on TNT.

“It’s tough and frustrating because you want to get back on the floor,” Okafor* said following the win. “Six fouls. JoJo [Embiid] was making fun of me when I get back in [the locker room], saying I was the only player who could foul out in 20 minutes. It was frustrating, especially in the heat of the game.”

*Note: He was wearing a Space Jam t-shirt while saying this. It's just a better visual.

While Okafor may not have played a ton of minutes, he was extremely efficient when was able to get on the court.

Jah with the move, the basket, and one more. #SixersTalk https://t.co/ZOhpAr5lXy
— CSN Philly (@CSNPhilly) November 17, 2016

Jah with the move, the foul, and one more from the line to put the Sixers up 10. #SixersTalk https://t.co/Umjw3BYTdl
— CSN Philly (@CSNPhilly) November 17, 2016

He finished 8-of-11 from the floor, but also seemed to be more physical both in the post and when setting screens.

So how was he able to be so productive?

“My teammates talking to me,” Okafor said. “Coach Brown challenging me before the game to attack, be aggressive, make quick decisions, and it really benefitted me.”

And he wasn’t kidding. Not a few minutes earlier, Brown had mentioned those same teaching points when asked to analyze his center’s play against Washington.

“There were two things that Jahlil did, in my eyes, tonight,” Brown said. “First was we challenge and coach and set a premium on him being a screen setter. If he can set screens and force defensive players to go over — you know, people go under our guards [on screen], Sergio [Rodriguez] included and T.J. [McConnell] for sure. And so what’s your angle look like to make people chase? You’ve got hit people, and you’ve got to get a good angle. He did that.

And I thought that his decision making and not just playing slow. He just caught [the ball] and went. He caught it and moved. He hit backdoor people. If he didn’t have a catch-go game, he’d play second side and look at some dribble/hand-off stuff. I just thought he played a really deliberate game, a quicker game.

“He was into the game. And I thought he really came in and helped us get a big win. I thought the last foul was very unfortunate.”

That last foul was indeed unfortunate. It came with just under three minutes left in the game, and was an off-ball offensive foul as he battle for post position against Markieff Morris. But after the way the first 45 minutes played out, the whistle shouldn’t have been all that surprising.

Embiid will be back on the court Thursday night in Minnesota. So will Okafor — he, unlike Embiid, has been cleared to play in the second half of back-to-backs. How many minutes can we expect against Karl-Anthony Towns and the Timberwolves?

“I think it’s in between 16 and 20 [minutes],” Brown said. “And normally when they tell me that, I don’t even hear 16.”