The Sixers’ 7-game Ice Capades trip got off to a promising start with two wins in the Sunshine State, but the Western Conference quickly brought them back to reality. Their fifth consecutive loss on the last leg of the road trip came at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers, 127-91.
Here are some quick observations from the game.
1. Wroten gives his all
I’m not sure Tony Wroten will ever play meaningful minutes for a good NBA team. He has holes in his game that are frankly glaring. That doesn’t mean Wroten isn’t already an extremely important part of the Sixers’ rebuild. Collecting Ping-Pong balls may be a sound strategy, but getting through these losing seasons is painful. On a night when Michael Carter-Williams was out, Wroten was fearless in going for 27 and 7. Forget the shooting and turnover numbers for a minute. Wroten makes the present much more tolerable.
2. Big Shot Bob
Sam Hinkie might have made a real find in Robert Covington, who went for 23 points on 9-15 shooting. Covington is the most efficient Sixer regular with a .578 true shooting percentage, which is impressive because he’s not exactly shy.
3. Point God at his finest
While the Sixers are a respectable defensive team (down to 18th overall after getting blitzed on the West Coast swing), they still make plenty of mental mistakes. Their rotations are often out of whack, which is to be expected from such a young team. Also to be expected is Chris Paul doing whatever he wants against a team with those types of problems. The Clipper point guard went for 24 points on 7-11 shooting and 12 assists to only one turnover.
4. Sampson finishes with authority
In most ways, JaKarr Sampson is still figuring himself out on the offensive end. He’s already an elite athlete, though.
5. A familiar face
Fresh off signing a four-year, $23 million contract in the offseason, Spencer Hawes didn’t get off to the hot start he had in Philly last year. His three-point percentage dropped from 41 to 33 percent and he has been hampered by a knee injury. In fact, Hawes’ most notable moment of the year was probably wearing an insanely ugly suit on Christmas night. He scored seven points and pulled down six rebounds.
6. MCW sits out
After tweaking his right shoulder in Friday night’s loss to Phoenix, Michael Carter-Williams sat out for what the Sixers termed “precautionary reasons.” He had surgery in the offseason to repair the labrum in the same shoulder.
7. Rough offensive night for Noel
Let’s start with the positive for Nerlens Noel: He pulled down 12 rebounds in last night’s game. That’s about it. Noel, who did throw down a couple of impressive dunks, shot 3-12 and committed six turnovers. The combination of his shaky hands and strength disadvantage makes it hard for him to score inside against the likes of DeAndre Jordan.
8. Lob City
Speaking of Jordan, it’s not often that you watch a full Clippers game and don’t see one of these. Sheesh. Jordan dunks on a regulation basket the way high school kids dunk on 7-foot rims in their driveways.
9. West is best
It’s already been covered at length, but the difference in quality between the Eastern and Western Conference is laughable. After starting their road trip with two wins in Florida, the Sixers lost by an average of 26 points in their next five games against Western opponents. At least for the Sixers, 10 of their next 11 games are against the East.