PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers were one of the top defensive teams in the league in December. They were fourth in defensive rating that month due to the elite play of Joel Embiid, De’Anthony Melton, Matisse Thybulle and others.
In January, the Sixers are ranked 22nd in defensive rating per StatMuse. Their defense hasn’t had the same sting.
In Saturday’s win over the Denver Nuggets, they were bad on defense in the first half and terrific in the second half. In Monday’s loss to the Orlando Magic, they were great on defense to start the game but not so much in the second half.
“Effort,” said Embiid. “I said it after the last game, we got to be able to put 48 minutes together. Last game, we weren’t given the first half, but we focused in that second half and we got the win, and tonight (Monday) was the opposite. Pretty good for most of the first half and then the second half, we just didn’t.”
On Monday, the Magic had 28 fast-break points. They took advantage of Philadelphia’s turnovers, using their athleticism to go the other way for easy buckets.
“Transition is rearing its back up for us,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Getting beat off the dribble is starting to come back up, low man defensively, I would say those three things. Then we lose our physicality in games. It started in the second half the other night; we had it. Those are the things we have to get back.”
The Sixers even went to a zone defense in the fourth hoping it would spark a comeback. They have had success going to a zone defense thanks to the length of Thybulle on plenty of occasions, but it wasn’t meant to be on Monday.
“Because they scored 42 on our man,” said Rivers. “In the first quarter, we went zone and it was really good. That’s what stretched the lead for us in that little stretch, but they had 42 points on our man. Some of that was in transition, but a lot of that, they were just looking us square in the eye and beating us off the dribble. The zone at least slowed them down, but then they killed us on the offensive glass.”
When Philadelphia can get set in the halfcourt with everybody on the same page, they can be a stifling team on that end of the floor because of the length and the IQ of their top defenders.
“Our halfcourt defense is pretty good,” Embiid added. “So if we’re not allowing teams to get easy baskets, and that’s by taking the ball, I think we put ourselves in better positions, but I think that’s the key for us.”
