As the season progresses, the Philadelphia 76ers gradually regain their form. Especially after the backcourt core James Harden returns, the 76ers can be said to be strong and strong. However, the biggest charm of NBA is that the strengths and weaknesses are not so clear-cut, especially in the long 82-game regular season, upsets of the weak defeating the strong are not uncommon. Against the 12th-place Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers lost a hard-fought away game and missed an excellent opportunity to reach the top four in the conference.
Due to mistakes at critical moments, the outside world is blaming 76ers core Joel Embiid . Not to mention that throughout the game, Joel Embiid scored 48 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks. Even the plus-minus value of +8 was the highest in the 76ers team. It can be said that Joel Embiid's performance was slightly worse. The 76ers had already accounted for this game. And the reason why the 76ers lost the game was that the shooters were lost. The team took 31 shots from outside the three-point line, but only made 6 goals. The three-point shooting rate was a disastrous 19.4%. It is really difficult to win in this era.
Judging from the 76ers' paper configuration, the management's original idea was to imitate the former Houston Rockets and rely on the efficiency-oriented magic ball theory to solve the problem. So we can also find that nearly half of the players in the 76ers' lineup have played for the Rockets, but their overall shooting performance is not flattering. The outside core James Harden has averaged 21.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 11.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game so far this season. The data seems to be pretty good, but James Harden's offensive threat has seriously declined compared to his peak period. It is precisely for this reason that it becomes easier for opponents to defend James Harden. He often needs to force three-pointers, and his shooting percentage naturally declines.
And the 76ers team fell into a strange circle at the same time, that is, when a large number of three-pointers were taken, the team did not have a very stable shooter. Among the 76ers' starting lineup, Tobias Harris has the best outside shooting ability and statistics. The latter averaged 16.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game this season, shooting nearly 50% from the field and 39.5% from the three-point range. However, in the game against wizards , although Tobias Harris scored 15 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks with a 50% shooting rate, his performance was quite comprehensive, but he missed all 4 shots from beyond the three-point line, and the top shooter in the 76ers' starting lineup was misfired, which made it increasingly difficult for them.
In the substitute position, the shooter the 76ers rely on is Georges Niang. However, similar to Tobias Harris, Georges Niang was also in no condition in this game. He made 7 shots from outside the three-point line, but only made 1 goal. We all know that Georges Niang's function on the court is relatively simple. As long as he can't shoot three-pointers from the outside, he won't be of much use, especially on the defensive end, which will be used as a breakthrough. So in this game, Georges Niang only scored 3 points and 4 rebounds, but committed 5 fouls. You must know that Georges Niang's three-point shooting percentage this season has exceeded 40%.
PJ-Tucker, as James Harden's old teammate in the Rockets, was also the league's king of three-pointers from the corner. Although PJ Tucker's statistics were not luxurious even back then, the offensive threat was still there, and opponents would definitely not dare to let him go completely. However, PJ Tucker has been too poor in offense in the past two years. He only took one shot against the Wizards. Not only did he not score, but his effective data was only 3 rebounds and 1 steal. Even so far this season, PJ Tucker has only averaged 3.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Even if his contribution cannot be reflected in data, as a long-term starter for a strong team in the playoffs, and even championship level, PJ Tucker's performance obviously did not meet the expectations of the outside world.
In addition, the 76ers' rotation includes De'Anthony Melton , Daniel House and Shake Milton . Their outside shooting is not very stable, at least they cannot change the opponent. The defensive strategy; while Matisse Thybulle is strong defensively, but has little offensive contribution, especially the open three-pointer, which is the key reason why the 76ers coaching staff hides Matisse Thybulle many times; as for Montrezl Harrell, he is a typical pie-eating insider. As long as he leaves the three-second zone, he basically loses his offensive threat.
As early as the early days of the 76ers' rise, when the team was centered on Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, and equipped with a group of top shooters, the 76ers were nicknamed the Royal Salute; even in the past two years, the 76ers also had long-famous guns players including Danny Green and Seth Curry, which frightened opponents. Unexpectedly, the 76ers' offensive tactics have not changed much now, but there are not many trustworthy outside shooters left in the team. Considering that there is only more than a month left before the deadline of this season, the 76ers really need a reliable shooter. Otherwise, once the playoffs arrive, when Joel Embiid and James Harden encounter tight defenses, the 76ers may be knocked back to their original form, not to mention that both of them also have injury risks that cannot be ignored.
