The Philadelphia 76ers got back to work on Tuesday for the 1st time since August in the bubble. They faced off against a familiar opponent in the Boston Celtics who swept them in Round 1 of the playoffs.
The Sixers look a lot different than they did in August and that was apparent early. In the first unofficial game of the Doc Rivers era, the team came away with a 108-99 win in preseason action. Shake Milton led the way with 19 points, Joel Embiid had 18 points while not playing in the second half, and Ben Simmons had 10 points and six assists.
Here are the three observations from the win:
Smoother offense
Rivers wasn’t kidding about running a lot of pick-and-roll. The Sixers added shooters this offseason for a reason and that was to let Simmons and Embiid work in a cleaner space on offense. They were able to run some familiar dribble handoff sets between Embiid and Seth Curry and the early results were encouraging. Boston’s defenders had to decide whether to guard Embiid or get up on Curry and that was something that made it easier to score for them due to the attention they command. Another thing was their offense in transition. The Sixers were able to get up and down a bit and defenders had to pay attention to both Curry and Danny Green on the wings which allowed Embiid and Simmons to get easy baskets. Philadelphia did not shoot the ball well from deep on this night, but even the threat of having legitimate shooters out there made life easier. Embiid saw a lot of single coverage in this game as he feasted down low and he got out and ran a lot too. That’s an encouraging sign.
Pace from the bench unit
Milton hopped off Philadelphia’s bench and he continued what Simmons was doing to start the game. He pushed the pace, he made sure the rest of the team ran with him, and he used his body to create his own looks. Furkan Korkmaz also deserves credit for his contribution as he was out and running every chance he got. That type of action allows Philadelphia to get out and run for easy buckets. The half-court offense from the 2nd unit needs a little work, but it was better than expected. Milton and Dwight Howard seemed to have a natural sense of how to run the pick-and-roll together and that’s something that’ll just grow over time. It wasn’t bad for a preseason game.
Tobias Harris’ activity
Harris is a guy who has some pressure to perform. That’s what comes when you sign a 5-year $180 million max contract. Rivers has been looking to get him to be more active and make quick decisions on the regular and he did that on Tuesday. He was not dribbling aimlessly as he had in the past. It was more quick actions and that was something that can be built off. Preseason is the time to work out the kinks and that is what he will work on as this process continues. He finished with 16 on 7-for-11 shooting and nine rebounds.