A lot of issues flow out of that basic, fundamental problem, leaving guys like Andre Drummond in constant two-on-ones with breakdowns to follow from there. It's definitely not this simple, but I don't think there's one guy in the current rotation who you could reliably expect to stop dribble penetration. It would be hard for any team to drop that many important defenders from the lineup and still hold up on defense, but this group has been extraordinarily bad on defense the last two games, and they need reinforcements fast. Even in Danny Green's diminished state, I would make an argument that they're missing the top four as he deals with hamstring tightness. The Sixers do not have, at a minimum, their three best and most important defensive players right now.MORE: Rich Paul is creating the Ben Simmons noise he claims is hurting his client The Bad That's about all I can muster in the good category. Charles Bassey and Paul Reed weren't that bad, but they also only really played in meaningless minutes, save for Bassey's brief burn early in the second quarter.The Jazz had trouble closing out on a group of five shooters, and the Sixers actually managed to get some stops by blitzing or hedging against a few pick-and-rolls, putting backup ballhandlers under pressure, and forcing some turnovers in the process. Honestly, that look was probably Philadelphia's best of the night, at least before this game got out of reach and the fight to defend as a small group left this unit. That goes double for Hassan Whiteside, Gobert's backup who is much worse at trying to recover out of those tough positions. The Jazz have had major issues in the playoffs when teams have played five-out lineups and made it harder for Rudy Gobert to solve all their problems at the rim, so it was worth a shot to try the same approach in a regular-season setting. Bullish as I have been on Paul Reed lately, I didn't hate Doc Rivers attempting to go small against Utah to stretch them out when Andre Drummond hit the bench.With his three-point confidence and success rate higher than they've ever been, Maxey is turning that placement and engagement into points on the board, and while it feels like a deck chair on the Titanic at the moment, it bodes well for the future. One thing I have liked seeing - Maxey initiating, meeting resistance from an opposing defense, finding an open teammate, and then finding a way to stay involved with the play anyway, either as a pure spacer or as a moving target for a teammate. That feels like a shame, but it has not stopped Maxey from finding his groove or picking his spots effectively, and he has slowly taken control of the offense the deeper they get into games. Yeah, he has had defensive issues of his own as the team gets bulldozed by teams on that end of the floor, but that takes a backseat to the show he is putting on offensively, even with the Sixers showing reluctance to let him run the show.Įarly in these games, the Sixers have often asked him to play more of a traditional point guard role, getting the ball to the featured player in a given set and getting out of the way. Starring in the sequel to Silver Linings Playbook, Tyrese Maxey is the only guy I think you could be unequivocally positive about over the last week and a half.That marks five straight losses for the Sixers, whose good start has faded quickly under the watch of a bench-heavy rotation. The Sixers got blown out of the water by the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night, losing 120-85 in a game that was never all that close.
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