Veteran wisdom could make postseason difference
PHILADELPHIA » In that part of the NBA season where exhaust rules, on consecutive nights, in games against ordinary teams 90 miles apart, the 76ers were in a position to act like their familiar, old selves.
They would play in New York, and they would fall behind quickly against the Knicks, relaxing on defense, dripping away turnovers. A night later, they would play at home, and for many of the same reasons, they would trail the Nets.
Each night, they looked a little tired, a little slow, a little disoriented and a lot like that operation that had just spent four years trying to win draft picks instead of playoff spots.
And then … they turned on their defense and won in Madison Square Garden.
And then … they looked like championship contenders to win again, literally fighting off Brooklyn in a game officiated by pro wrestling rules.
Playoff teams — which Brett Brown’s squad will be — are supposed to suppress inferior, in-division opponents. But T.J. McConnell, just to identify one who has been around for a while, knows that would not, could not have happened last season, or the year before that. And he knows why.
It is because huddles once dominated by confused, young faces have come to include J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson, Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova … veteran players, accomplished in the NBA and internationally, players who would not be overwhelmed by the moment, and who would not let their younger teammates be overwhelmed, either.
“I just said it to Coach,” McConnell was saying the other night, long after the triumph over the Nets. “It’s weird to be on the other side of the late-game stuff, where you usually see us collapse, like we did last year. And that’s all about bringing the guys in that we have, like J.J. They have been big leaders for us.
“The game against New York, I’m not sure we would have had enough to close them out before. And that’s a credit to us to be able to close them out and play well at the end.”
Earlier in the week, after a rugged loss to the Indiana Pacers, Brown was asked about the Sixers’ habit of turning the ball over, and why that hasn’t improved. His response was clever: “Because you can’t expedite birth certificates.” In that, he seemed to be drawing a familiar card, the one the Sixers had played for so long that it had turned worn and flimsy. It was that they were too young, still, to play with necessary precision in the late-season seeding race and beyond.
Technically, the Sixers should never have been permitted to use youth to explain failure. That’s because they were young by design, not by fate. Yet during their tanking stage, it was at least an understandable position. The other night, Brown’s birth-certificate defense was interesting, and almost had a comic twist. The Sixers emploedy Belinelli (age 30), Ilyasova (29), Johnson (29), Redick (32) and Jerryd Bayless (28). Robert Covington, 27, is in his fifth Sixers season. Injuries have cast Joel Embiid, 21, as inexperienced, but this is his fourth season on an NBA roster. Dario Saric, 22, is deeply seasoned as an international star.
Ben Simmons is young, and there will be a postseason fee for trusting a rookie point guard. But the Sixers are not young. Not anymore.
“I think Ben and Joel are,” Brown said. “And you forget how young Dario is by NBA standards. And when you look at our highvolume-touch guys, those three feature a lot in what we do. So when we use the turnover thing, and that’s when I used that line, I sincerely mean it. We have a young center who has the most touches in the NBA in the post. Look at the usage rate. Look where he features there.
“That’s going to come with some pain. That’s living in the real world. The other stuff? No. With Ersan and Macro and Amir and J.J., we have that side of the fence covered too.”
They do. And that’s what makes them compelling as the playoffs approach. They are young enough to have the necessary postseason bounce yet mature enough to fight through tough stretches.
“We’ve got guys who are holding us all accountable, and it is pretty cool to see,” said Justin Anderson, a 24-year-old, thirdyear pro. “It reminds me of my first year, when I was in Dallas. We had all veterans. It was just me and Dwight Powell; we were the youngest. So now with the additions of Marco, Ersan, Amir, J.J., those guys have been sounding boards for us. You can see guys pulling them aside on their own and talking about things. During games, they are talking, they are engaged, they are telling us what we should be doing next.
“It’s just cool. We all like each other. And that’s what separates us.”
It separates them from recent Sixers teams.
It could separate them from some other playoff teams, too.