Sixers at Nets: 3 Storylines to Watch

Joel Embiid followed up a dominant effort Thursday against the Clippers with a historic one Saturday afternoon against the Pistons (see observations).

Embiid then roasted Detroit bigs Andre Drummond and Zaza Pachulia in typical Embiid fashion (see story).

Tonight, the Sixers are in Brooklyn to face the Nets. Here are three things to watch:

1. Third-quarter starts

Assistant coach Monty Williams relayed this message to me at the half Saturday against Detroit: "Schemes don't matter. Stats don't matter. We have to come with great energy, with third quarter big time juice." The messaging was clearly there, but the Sixers still gave up a 13-0 run to the Pistons to start the second half Saturday. This came off the heels of a 27-8 Clippers run to start the third quarter a couple nights prior, and a 26-15 Toronto run to start the second half in the game before that.

Brett Brown's philosophy is that during halftime, and this is Brown's phrasing, "they brother-in-law" each other, everybody is "kum ba yah" and doesn't get into that fight until deeper into the game. Whatever the case, it's an issue the Sixers need to fix, and my eyes will be on what the Sixers do out of the half Sunday.

2. The rookie's role

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Landry Shamet finished with 11 points in 19 minutes Saturday. It was the fourth game the rookie has finished in double figures, and one of many games where Brown has entrusted him in the rotation. Brown mentioned Saturday that they are using him as a "mini-JJ (Redick)."

It's pretty notable that they are clearly calling plays for Shamet when it matters. Heck, the kid can actually shoot, something this team desperately needs. I'm curious about how Shamet's role changes once Wilson Chandler is fully healthy. Shamet still got a nice chunk of minutes during Chandler's first game back, but he was also on a minutes restriction. If Shamet keeps this up, I expect him to be a more consistent part of the Sixers' bench rotation.

3. Not-so-Super Dario

Through 10 games, Dario Saric is shooting 33 percent from the field and just 24.1 percent from three. On Saturday against Detroit, his body language when subbing out showed me his frustrations, and there were a couple wide-open shots that last season's Saric would have never passed up.

In the past two games, Brown has opted to sub out Saric earlier than normal and go with Mike Muscala. Brown has consistently said he's not worried and that he thinks Saric's slow start is directly correlated to his international play in the summer, but Saric needs a big game to get his confidence back. JJ Redick has said sometimes it just takes one breakthrough game. Hopefully, Sunday can be it.

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