There are a few obvious explanations for the Sixers' 113-101 loss Friday night to the Pacers (see observations).
Joel Embiid didn't get enough support on a night in which he posted 40 points and a career-high 21 rebounds; the bench continues to look awfully thin for a team with championship aspirations; it would have been nice to have Jimmy Butler (he missed his second straight game with a strained groin) against a good, physical Pacers team that's on a six-game winning streak and just surpassed the Sixers in the standings.
The Sixers' defensive issues, though, defy a simple explanation.
After giving up 70 points in the second half of Wednesday's loss to the Nets and 64 after halftime to Indiana, just about everyone you asked had a different answer.
While head coach Brett Brown framed the defensive problems as a team concern, he did single out two young players.
"Going down to the list, it's not like you're going to have a wide variety to choose from," Brown said. "It's not so much that, it's trying to get those guys to expedite their birth certificates. They sure felt all of [the Pacers'] physicality, and I thought Furkan [Korkmaz] and Landry [Shamet] struggled defensively tonight."
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Korkmaz and Shamet just don't have the physical tools to be good NBA defenders at this stage. The Pacers identified Bogdan Bogdanovic's advantage over the 21-year-old Korkmaz. Bogdanovic powered through Korkmaz for a couple early baskets and torched him on several occasions during a third-quarter run by Indiana.
JJ Redick had a different explanation.
"I'll have to look at the tape on that one," Redick said. "I think the biggest thing that we didn't do tonight and didn't do well against Brooklyn was just being aware of the hot guys - the hot guys being Bogdanovic, Allen Crabbe and Joe Harris, and allowing those guys to get catch-and-shoot threes. I thought we played our pick-and-roll defense tonight, and you're going to give some stuff up against that."
Like Redick, Embiid identified pick-and-roll defense as a concern.
"Pick-and-roll, we gotta adjust a lot," he said. "Like I've said in the past, it's hard because coaches want us bigs to stay back and you got guys that just go and pull up. And when you come up, they get lobs or easy baskets. That's what Indiana runs a lot - they run a lot of pick-and-rolls and they took advantage of it."
We've already broken down the Sixers' woes with pick-and-roll defense (see film review). As Embiid said, the Sixers prefer to play "drop" coverage, which leaves them vulnerable against players capable of knocking down pull up jumpers or attacking the soft spot in the defense.
At his locker before the game, Amir Johnson put aside the technical talk. Johnson, who did not play against the Pacers, has been on the fringe of the rotation.
I feel like we just gotta guard. [We've] been having trouble with 1-on-1 defense. I feel like it has to be a team effort. When we make a mistake, I feel like we gotta show anger and be pissed, like, ‘OK, I'm not going to let this motherf---er score on me again,' excuse my language. But that's how I think on defense, I know. I think that's what we gotta bring. I think overall we're 12th in defensive rating. I feel like if we get two or three stops, we can be top-10 or top-five or whatever. We just gotta guard and kinda feel painful when those guards coming off are scoring layups … just guard our man.
Every explanation that the Sixers provided for their defensive woes is plausible. Personnel; not adjusting fast enough when an opposing player is hot; pick-and-roll scheme; intensity and pride - all those things likely play a role.
Butler's presence alleviates some of those issues, but one player doesn't solve a problem that complex.
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