In this ESPN doubleheader to close out week 5, our first game features the 5-10 San Antonio Spurs playing the 9-5 Philadelphia 76ers, live from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Sixers got off to a hot start, winning their first three games of the year. Suspensions and defensive struggles plagued this Philly team that many predicted to be in the NBA Finals at year’s end, and though they’ve let the other Eastern powers in Boston, Toronto, Milwaukee and Miami (with former Sixer Jimmy Butler) get ahead of them in the standings this early in the season, some resurgence from their three all-stars of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Al Horford, along with their bench and other rotational pieces, is showing itself in their 2-1 week as they are only a mere four-and-a-half games out of first in the East.
Things are starting to heat up for Philly, and while they are outside the top 10 in total offensive efficiency and just in the defensive efficiency top 10, you have to believe these numbers heighten themselves as we enter the quarter-way point in the season.
As for the Spurs, their 5-10 record is not directly indicative of how bad they’ve played so far this year, dropping some questionable losses to the Hawks, Grizzlies and Magic. Playing some elite teams out West and some visiting Eastern powerhouses have done their damage to a team that’s desperate for a win. To get their sixth win tonight though, they’ll have to stop opportunities in the open court and prevent this middle-of-the-pack team from getting easy buckets.
It sounds easy enough, considering that the Philadelphia 76ers are the 17th ranked team in the NBA when it comes to overall pace, and most, if not all of Brett Brown’s offense comes from half-court sets. The Spurs are an uptempo team, just appearing in the top 15 (14th overall) in the pace rankings.
What Gregg Popovich will have to counter, however, is the size of the Sixers, as they deploy three guys that are 6’9 and higher in their starting lineup. Switching onto three progressively elite defenders in Embiid, Simmons and Horford is a scary sight, and you add that with a second unit that’s composed of pieces like James Ennis III and Mike Scott that can get out and run, drilling threes in transition? That’s hard to stop, and the Spurs’ 28th ranked defense in the league may have a long night matching up against Brown’s height-awash roster.
This should be a physical game with bunches of battles down low. It will be compelling to see just where and how guards like DeMar DeRozan and Derrick White generate good shot profiles while dealing with the height and wingspan of this Sixers team. Joel Embiid and LaMarcus Aldridge are more than likely going to go back to back all night until one of the big men lose fuel down the stretch.
But the biggest question of all….
Will Ben Simmons continue his now 100 percent shooting from three-point land?
Sixers – Spurs tips off at 8:00 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on ESPN.
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