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After a disappointing short home stand the Cavs arrive in the City of Brotherly Love, where they won’t be getting any of that from the new-look 76ers. These are two trains passing in opposite directions. The Cavs had lost five of six and have fallen to 6th place. The Sixers are on a roll after having essentially swapped Seth Curry and Andre Drummond for James Harden.
The Sixers are 3-0 since Harden put on a blue jersey, beating the T-Wolves by 31 and the Knicks by 16 and 15. Joel Embiid says that with Harden on board the Sixers are “unstoppable”. “What are you really going to do?” he asked.
When these teams last played the Cavs didn’t do much with Embiid, who had possibly his best game of the season with 40 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists for a +24 in a 10-point win. IIRC it was the NBA’s first 40-point triple-double since Wilt Chamberlain. The only game this year that might have been better was his 50-point, 12-rebound, 3-assist game against Orlando, but considering the competition I think his game against the Cavs’ #1 ranked scoring defense was easily the most impressive. I heard some Sixers' fans thought it was the best game of his career.
Jarrett Allen will surely be looking at the film of that game and hopefully will have a better plan this time, and one that does not involve doubling Embiid and leaving Harden alone at the 3-point line.
In one of the Knicks games Embiid fouled out Mitch Robinson in 17 minutes and then went to work on his backup. Embiid finished the night 23-for-27 from the foul line. Must have been a three-hour game.
In his three games since the trade Harden is averaging 27.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 12.3 assists. When you're passing to Embiid you end up with a lot of assists. For the season Embiid has a line of 29.8/11.1/4.4 and is one of the MVP favorites.
Embiid and Harden are not working alone. PF Tobias Harris is averaging 18.2 points and 7.2 boards; PG Tyrese Maxey averages 17.3, and defender extraordinaire Matisse Thybulle rounds out the starting lineup. Thybulle is averaging 5.9 points per game and shot 22.7% on 3’s in February so if the Cavs want to double Joel they need to make sure Thybulle is the guy that’s left open. He’s their Isaac Okoro, only better. Three weeks ago against the Cavs he had six steals.
Coming off the bench are Milton, Green, and Niang; a shooting guard and two small forwards. Niang and Green are shooting 40% and 36% on 3’s. The Sixers just signed DeAndre Jordon, replacing Andre Drummond and filling in their last remaining hole. I assume he will play tonight.
So this is a loaded team the Cavs are facing and they need to bring their “A” game if they want to avoid a second consecutive 20-point loss. They were respectable against Philly three weeks ago, losing 103-93, but Harden gives the Sixers a whole new dimension.
The Cavs are in something of a free fall with their only win in the last six games coming against Washington, which played a double-overtime game the night before and got into Cleveland at 2 a.m. Over those six games they rank 27th in scoring defense. Before that they ranked 1st.
What happened to the defense? Bickerstaff says they lost their edge.
“One the physicality to start with. Two, there’s a lot of discipline mistakes, we’re not in the spots where we should be. And then the third piece of it is we’re not doing the extra that we were doing to this point to put ourselves in that position that made us who we were.”
We’re not playing the same way that we did in the first half of the season. We have to get back to that. - Darius Garland
Tonight would be a good time to start. The Cavs have shown the ability to play their best against the strongest opponents (the win over the Bucks at full strength, for example). I’d like to see a strong effort tonight, even if it results in a loss. Two nights ago the Knicks were down 95-90 early in the 4th quarter before the Sixers put them away. I want to see the Cavs at least hang tough into the 4th quarter.
The most interesting matchups will be Embiid/Allen and Harden/Okoro, unless JBB puts Mobley on Harden. JBB has been complaining about the lack of “physicality” so we might see Lamar Stevens on Harden as well.
Maxey against Garland will be another great matchup, although I won’t be surprised if they put Thybulle on the guy that makes the Cavs’ offense go.
The Sixers start three guards, so Harden will probaby be guarding Markkanen. If it’s Harden we need Lauri to post him up and either score or force a foul. Harden is too experienced to get in foul trouble, though, unlike LaMelo Ball on Wednesday. So Lauri might get some easy buckets. Same thing if Harden is checking Mobley. Post him up all night.
By the way, the Detroit Pistons have won four of their last six games, with wins over Boston, Cleveland, Charlotte, and Toronto. That team is getting it together now that they're healthy and Jeremi Grant is back.
The Nets have lost 16 of 19, but now they have Durant back. He scored 31 last night and they still lost.
The Lakers have lost 16 of 22 and are nine games out of 6th place. Best case scenario is they need to win a play-in series to make the playoffs. But they are two games out of 11th place and the lottery. They're way over the salary cap and will be next year, too.
I wonder if things don’t change will LeBron want to do this again next year?
The Sixers are 3-0 since Harden put on a blue jersey, beating the T-Wolves by 31 and the Knicks by 16 and 15. Joel Embiid says that with Harden on board the Sixers are “unstoppable”. “What are you really going to do?” he asked.
When these teams last played the Cavs didn’t do much with Embiid, who had possibly his best game of the season with 40 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists for a +24 in a 10-point win. IIRC it was the NBA’s first 40-point triple-double since Wilt Chamberlain. The only game this year that might have been better was his 50-point, 12-rebound, 3-assist game against Orlando, but considering the competition I think his game against the Cavs’ #1 ranked scoring defense was easily the most impressive. I heard some Sixers' fans thought it was the best game of his career.
Jarrett Allen will surely be looking at the film of that game and hopefully will have a better plan this time, and one that does not involve doubling Embiid and leaving Harden alone at the 3-point line.
In one of the Knicks games Embiid fouled out Mitch Robinson in 17 minutes and then went to work on his backup. Embiid finished the night 23-for-27 from the foul line. Must have been a three-hour game.
In his three games since the trade Harden is averaging 27.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 12.3 assists. When you're passing to Embiid you end up with a lot of assists. For the season Embiid has a line of 29.8/11.1/4.4 and is one of the MVP favorites.
Embiid and Harden are not working alone. PF Tobias Harris is averaging 18.2 points and 7.2 boards; PG Tyrese Maxey averages 17.3, and defender extraordinaire Matisse Thybulle rounds out the starting lineup. Thybulle is averaging 5.9 points per game and shot 22.7% on 3’s in February so if the Cavs want to double Joel they need to make sure Thybulle is the guy that’s left open. He’s their Isaac Okoro, only better. Three weeks ago against the Cavs he had six steals.
Coming off the bench are Milton, Green, and Niang; a shooting guard and two small forwards. Niang and Green are shooting 40% and 36% on 3’s. The Sixers just signed DeAndre Jordon, replacing Andre Drummond and filling in their last remaining hole. I assume he will play tonight.
So this is a loaded team the Cavs are facing and they need to bring their “A” game if they want to avoid a second consecutive 20-point loss. They were respectable against Philly three weeks ago, losing 103-93, but Harden gives the Sixers a whole new dimension.
The Cavs are in something of a free fall with their only win in the last six games coming against Washington, which played a double-overtime game the night before and got into Cleveland at 2 a.m. Over those six games they rank 27th in scoring defense. Before that they ranked 1st.
What happened to the defense? Bickerstaff says they lost their edge.
“One the physicality to start with. Two, there’s a lot of discipline mistakes, we’re not in the spots where we should be. And then the third piece of it is we’re not doing the extra that we were doing to this point to put ourselves in that position that made us who we were.”
We’re not playing the same way that we did in the first half of the season. We have to get back to that. - Darius Garland
Tonight would be a good time to start. The Cavs have shown the ability to play their best against the strongest opponents (the win over the Bucks at full strength, for example). I’d like to see a strong effort tonight, even if it results in a loss. Two nights ago the Knicks were down 95-90 early in the 4th quarter before the Sixers put them away. I want to see the Cavs at least hang tough into the 4th quarter.
The most interesting matchups will be Embiid/Allen and Harden/Okoro, unless JBB puts Mobley on Harden. JBB has been complaining about the lack of “physicality” so we might see Lamar Stevens on Harden as well.
Maxey against Garland will be another great matchup, although I won’t be surprised if they put Thybulle on the guy that makes the Cavs’ offense go.
The Sixers start three guards, so Harden will probaby be guarding Markkanen. If it’s Harden we need Lauri to post him up and either score or force a foul. Harden is too experienced to get in foul trouble, though, unlike LaMelo Ball on Wednesday. So Lauri might get some easy buckets. Same thing if Harden is checking Mobley. Post him up all night.
By the way, the Detroit Pistons have won four of their last six games, with wins over Boston, Cleveland, Charlotte, and Toronto. That team is getting it together now that they're healthy and Jeremi Grant is back.
The Nets have lost 16 of 19, but now they have Durant back. He scored 31 last night and they still lost.
The Lakers have lost 16 of 22 and are nine games out of 6th place. Best case scenario is they need to win a play-in series to make the playoffs. But they are two games out of 11th place and the lottery. They're way over the salary cap and will be next year, too.
I wonder if things don’t change will LeBron want to do this again next year?
