Philly Sports Jabronis
Report From Philadelphia 76ers
Game Recap: Cavaliers 95, 76ers 85
Snapshot: What happens when you’ve got arguably the best player on the planet occupying a spot on your roster? You can do things like increase a tenuous two-point lead on the road to a far more comfortable 16-point margin in the span of about four minutes. Such was the impact that LeBron James had in Sunday’s fourth quarter, as he helped drive his Cleveland Cavaliers (26-9) past the 76ers (4-36), 95-85. The win was Cleveland’s seventh straight overall, and allowed the Cavs to sweep their four-game season series with the Sixers. Three of the four contests that the teams played against each other were decided by 10 points or less.
Behind his steadiest shooting display of the 2015-2016 campaign, James finished with a season-high-tying 37 points, knocking down 15 of his 22 field goal attempts. After the Sixers made it an 81-79 game, James returned to the floor with 7:32 remaining in regulation. He almost single-handedly put together the Cavaliers’ decisive 14-0 burst, scoring all but two points during that stretch. James also added seven rebounds, nine assists, and two steals. Cleveland big men Kevin Love (15 pts, 15 reb) and Tristan Thompson (10 pts, 10 reb) registered their 15th and eighth double-doubles, respectively.
The Sixers received quality contributions from their starting frontcourt tandem as well. Jahlil Okafor paced the team with 21 points (9-15 fg), and snagged seven rebounds as well. The 20-point effort was Okafor’s third in his past five outings, and 15th this year. Nerlens Noel flirted with a double-double, posting 12 points (5-7 fg) and nine boards, while notching three blocks for the second time in as many nights. Ish Smith finished with 18 points and 10 assists, delivering a far more robust stat line than both Kyrie Irving (8 pts, 2 ast) and Matthew Dellavedova (4 pts, 1 ast), his counterparts from the Cavs.
Defensively, the Sixers permitted Cleveland to convert only 38.9 percent of its field goal attempts. The Cavaliers entered the evening with the fourth-best shooting percentage in the Eastern Conference.
Top Moment:
In the final seconds of the fourth quarter, Ish Smith put the finishing touches on yet another stellar game. After dropping 28 points on the Toronto Raptors on Saturday, Smith followed-up his career-best scoring performance by netting 18 points and handing out 10 assists against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. Smith has recorded a double-double three times since being reacquired by the Sixers on December 24th. He generated four double-doubles during his 27-game run with the New Orleans Pelicans. Fittingly, for his final helper of the night, Smith connected with Nerlens Noel on an alley-oop lob. The highlight can be found below:
http://www.csnphilly.com/basketball-philadelphia-76ers/highlights-ish-sm…
Brett Brown Said – On being pleased with the Sixers’ defensive showing, despite LeBron James manufacturing 12 points amidst the Cleveland Cavaliers’ pivotal 14-0 fourth-quarter run:
“It’s a two-point game when [James] checks in. When I look at this stat sheet, and I see that team have 95 points, and you look at the percentages of their backcourt players. Let’s take out Lebron for a second. And you see 39.0 percent from the field. You see 28 from the three line and we knew the three line was going to be important. I think we did a good job defensively. LeBron goes 15-22 at 37 points. You’re not going to get many wins when he does something like that.”
Notes and Quotes:
Brett Brown readily and willingly acknowledges that the production of his two starting big men, Nerens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, represents a storyline that will be closely followed and monitored until April 13th, when the Sixers’ regular season closes in Chicago. Noel and Okafor, both lottery picks, have also both spent virtually the entirety of their respective basketball careers at the center position. Noel, however, has been asked to primarily assume power forward duties in his second campaign, not only to accommodate for the present presence of Okafor, but the future presence of Joel Embiid as well.
“As I tell anybody that’ll listen, I can’t quit on that now,” Brett Brown said of evaluating Noel’s long-term potential at the four-man spot. “He’s just 21. To just anoint him only as a five-man, especially where we’re at. You have Joel Embiid, you have Jahlil Okafor, you have Nerlens Noel. And so every sort of gut feel if you’re just trying to win the championship now says you’d split them up, and off we go. You’ve got two great five men, and you’d pair them up with the point guards, and sprinkle shooters around them, and life’s nice. But that’s not my place now.”
Brown continued, “My place is…to grow them, and give it a chance. To just say you’re not this, and you’re never going to be this at 21 years old is just so reckless, and wrong, and naive on my part. We’ll talk about until April. That’s what we’re going to do for a while, and then you will see that split up.”
Brown admires the attitude Noel has taken.
“I feel like Nerlens Noel has made the most sacrifices out of anybody,” said Brown, reiterating a point he made several weeks ago. “He’s got to play defense sometimes as a four, he’s got to play offense sometimes as a four.”
Noel and Okafor played alongside one another for roughly 19 minutes on Sunday, starting and finishing the game together. In between, Brown did deploy the two separately, and, on the whole, received solid results. Combined, Noel and Okafor accounted for 33 points and 16 rebounds.
If the last 13 years have proven anything, LeBron James, regardless of championship ring count or perceived ability in the clutch, has done a pretty good job of playing professional basketball. The accolades on the four-time MVP’s resume are lengthy, and have been covered extensively over the course of his career. In the context of the present season, however, James entered Sunday’s match-up ranked sixth in the NBA in scoring, second in field goals made, and 16th in assists.
Second-year Syracuse product Jerami Grant drew the Sixers’ start at small forward, and was responsible for defending James at the outset of the game.
“Obviously, I think he’s the best player in the world right now,” said Grant. “He can do so many things on the court at once. You kind of got to give him what you want him to have. Obviously, he won’t accept it. But at the same time, as you work as a team on defense, I think we’ll be ok.”
On Sunday, James delivered a determined showing, and would not be contained. He had scored 14 points by halftime, and added 11 more points in the third quarter. Then came his critical outburst in the fourth period.
“Whenever you watch him on the court, you always can see him thinking the game,” said Grant. “He’s always trying to think a step ahead of everybody else. I think that’s something I can take as a player, and other people can take as well.”
James was particularly effective in the Cavaliers’ season series versus the Sixers, averaging 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 9.2 assists, and 2.8 steals in four games.
Since making his first appearance of the season against the Sixers back on December 20th, Kyrie Irving has seen his playing time gradually increase over the past two and a half weeks. After playing less than 17 minutes against the Sixers in his debut, and 19 minutes in his next outing three days later, the 2012 NBA Rookie of the Year has logged at least 20 minutes in seven consecutive outings.
As for his production on the court, Irving has seen a spike in his scoring as his involvement has increased. In particular, over five contests leading up to Sunday’s pairing with the Sixers, Irving had been averaging 21.0 points per game.
“Just like his minutes have progressively gone up, I think also his comfort level, and obviously his performance has improved, and has become a lot more comfortable for him, more than anything else,” said Cleveland head coach David Blatt. “It’s great to see. It’s good for the team. It’s good for his confidence, and obviously, it’s good news for us going forward.”
Irving suffered a left kneecap fracture in overtime of Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals, when the Cavaliers were on the road against the Golden State Warriors. He earned his third consecutive All-Star Game bid last year, when he averaged 21.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game in the regular season.
As for whether Irving is eager to boost his workload?
“He wants to play,” Blatt said. “He was aware of what the plan was from the beginning. And is also aware now that his limitations are less and less. He feels comfortable playing.”
Blatt said that while Irving’s playing time is still being monitored “of sorts”, he’s not currently on a hard, fast minute restriction. Irving’s 31 minutes Sunday was his second-highest total of the year.
Next Up:
The Sixers will be presented with an uncommon three-day in-season hiatus until Thursday, when they continue their six-game homestand against the Chicago Bulls (22013). After enduring a season-long three-game slide leading up to Christmas, Chicago has since played its best basketball. Dating back to their 105-96 road victory at Oklahoma City Christmas Day, the Bulls have prevailed in seven of their past nine outings. Highlighting this surge was a season-best six-game winning streak that was snapped on Saturday with a 120-105 defeat at Atlanta. During that streak, Derrick Rose was held out for three straight games after he started to feel some discomfort in his right knee, the same knee that’s given him trouble throughout his career. Rose was cleared to return on December 30th, and has been effective, averaging 17.0 points while shooting 62.0 percent from the field his past five contests.
