The Philadelphia 76ers are 0-2, with losses against the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks, the two teams in the Eastern Conference many think they will need to get through to achieve their goals. After getting thoroughly outplayed by Boston in the second half on Tuesday, the Sixers 2nd half struggles continued Thursday, until they went to a lineup with no center on the court which gave them a chance to win the game late. The lineup of James Harden, Tobais Harris, P.J. Tucker, De’Anthony Melton, and Danuel House Jr., finished plus-9 in the loss to the Bucks in about 4 minutes. Harden has been great to start the season, the same cannot be said about Philadelphia’s main star, Joel Embiid.
Embiid just looks disengaged to start the season. He is not demanding the basketball, catching the ball too high when he does get it, has been bad defensively, and still has no idea what to do when he is doubled. In both games to start the season, Embiid has been mostly catching the ball at the top of the key, which is not what you want from your 7 foot tall center. On Tuesday, every time Joel caught the ball at the top of the key, Boston had someone ready to double as soon as Embiid would dribble. After 6 turnovers on Tuesday, Embiid had another 4 on Thursday while being held 0-7 from the field in the second half against the Bucks, however unlike Boston, Milwaukke allowed their bigs to play one on one with Joel and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez did a great job. He has not looked good to start the season, and that is a big reason why Philly is 0-2.
Another reason the Sixers are 0-2 is a lack of production from their bench that supposedly added a lot of players who would help them this season. Players like Danuel House Jr., Montrezl Harrell, and De’Anthony Melton have not contributed on offense in the first 2 games to start the season. House is not a very good offensive player to begin with as a career 36% 3 point shooter, he was added by the Sixers to be an offensive improvement from what Matisse Thybulle has given them over the past few season while still giving them some of what Thybulle has given them on defense. However, House did not make a single three pointer in the 76ers first two games. De’Anthony Melton was benched by the Grizzlies last postseason given a few DNP-CD’s in the Timberwolves series. However, he does give Philly a lot of length and athleticism when defending guards and that should help them in both the regular season and the playoffs. Finally, there is no reason Montrezl Harrell should be playing over Paul Reed, Reed is better defensively and is not that much of a drop off on offense and if Harden is on the court, there isn’t a reason the backup center needs to do much more than set screens and roll to the rim on offense. Their bench needs to be better to be taken seriously in the East.
One player that has been great to start the season for Philly is James Harden. After 35 points on opening night, Harden followed that up with 31 points on Thursday. He is clearly no longer the player he was in Houston, however, he has expanded his game by taking mid-range jump shots, which probably makes Daryl Morey cringe every time he takes one but that's neither here nor there. Harden only shot 1-7 from 3 last night and though in the past that was a death wish on a Harden performance, he still scored 31 points and shot over 50% from the field at 54.2%. He is playing very well, looks like he is having fun on the court, and after a 31 point, 9 assist, 8 rebound performance he needs his all world center to play better so that they can win some games.
The Sixers have had a rough start to the season and need Joel Embiid to play better if they are going to achieve what they want to achieve. Harden has been awesome to start the season, Tyrese Maxey needs to get move involved, and Tobais Harris is doing Tobais Harris things, what are those things you ask… I don't really know but he is doing them. The Sixers are 0-2 with both losses against the consensus top team in their conference, which is less than ideal but there is a lot of season to go and the Sixers should still be a really good team this season. The Sixers next game is against the Spurs at home so if they lose that game it may be time to panic but until then I am not too worried about Philly’s start.
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