February 07, 2016
It’s little surprise that when two of the league’s three worst offensive teams get together, the games are often, as Brett Brown calls it, “a fistfight.” I prefer “rock fight,” but they both mean the same thing. For one half of Saturday night’s game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets, the basketball wasn’t exactly aesthetically pleasing.
The game opened up in a major way after the break, though. And believe it or not, it was the Sixers’ big lineup (the one getting outscored to the tune of 20 points per 100 possessions) that secured them a late victory. For once, it was Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel’s turn to walk down a game together.
Okafor checked in with 7:20 remaining and the Sixers down two points. Brown didn’t substitute Okafor or Noel the rest of the way, and the short-handed Sixers did just enough to secure a 103-98 victory in front of a sneakily lively Saturday Wells Fargo Center crowd.
“I definitely thought the guys brought it tonight,” Nerlens Noel said.
More than any other Sixer, the two young bigs brought it. This was a good night for The Process:
Nerlens Noel: 18 points (8-11 FG), 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks
Jahlil Okafor: 22 points (9-16 FG), 17 rebounds, 1 steal, and 3 blocks
Okafor’s game always tends to be less Vine-able (if that’s a word), but he was a handful for the Nets on the offensive glass. The rook corralled seven of his career-high 17 rebounds on the offensive end of the floor, and while he wasn’t really a focal point at the end of the game, Okafor managed to get on the glass and create some key second-chance points.
As Brown said, “He had a hell of a game.” The Nets are an average defensive rebounding team, and Okafor simply outworked them on the glass. Then, he was able to convert on a high percentage of the chances he created. After a stinker in Washington from the rookie (4-11 FG, an ugly minus-27), this was about as good of a bounce-back that the Sixers could realistically hope for.
“I can’t really pinpoint what was different [from yesterday], I think everyone was engaged,” Okafor said. “We’re really ashamed of how we played yesterday, particularly the first quarter.”
What stayed the same from the Wizards game and blowout loss to Atlanta earlier in the week is that Okafor finds himself defending the 4 much more frequently. While that isn’t even close to an ideal scenario, Brown’s logic for the time being is fairly simple: The benefit that the Sixers get from playing Noel at his natural center position (shots, steals, deflections, pick-and-roll defense) is greater than the problems they encounter by having Okafor chasing power forwards.
“I think it helps the team, it’s just personnel,” Noel said. “I think me being around the rim helps my shot-blocking presence, especially in the pick-and-roll when they usually bring a 5 up. I think it changes the game.”
The numbers think so, too. The situation is interesting because it doesn’t feel at all like a long-term solution and yet here the Sixers are. As Noel said, the Nets’ more traditional frontcourt (Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young) allowed the Sixers to play big. While Young (22 points) got loose in the second half against a few different defenders, Okafor could largely help pack the paint while Noel wrestled with Lopez on the low block.
As Brown said after the game, the Sixers making their way around the league with Okafor defending stretch-fours could (and should) get ugly. Unlike Okafor, Noel can’t easily utilize his size advantage on offense and teams will feel comfortable defending him with power forwards. For now, Okafor is willing to be the good soldier.
“Obviously I’m not accustomed to [the 4], but the more I play it, hopefully I get more comfortable doing it,” Okafor said. “I felt a little better tonight than when I first started doing it.”
The other story of the night was T.J. McConnell, who stepped in for an injured Ish Smith (sprained ankle, day-to-day) and played 28 minutes. Before the game, Brown and McConnell both talked about the rookie point guard pacing himself slightly in extended minutes, sort of like a marathon runner compared to a sprinter.
McConnell was very good. He finished with 17 points (7-10 FG) and six assists, doing a solid job getting into the lane and finding three-point shooters. And while he couldn’t play aggressive full-court pressure defense for the entire game, McConnell was pesky enough to come up with a crucial steal late in the game that sealed a Sixers victory.
Noel felt that McConnell even grew up during the game tonight.
“I knew he was going to come out and play his game, bring that that tenacity and intensity he plays with,” Noel said.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
