Brown doubles down on long-shot order
PHILADELPHIA >> Brett Brown invited, encouraged, pleaded with and approved the Sixers to do the one thing few players ever resist.
Shoot more 3-pointers, he instructed before a Jan. 6 visit from the Oklahoma Thunder.
Take them, embrace them, win with them.
In the four games between taking that plan public and a visit from the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday, the Sixers has taken 123 3-pointers, making 39, a less-than-sparkling 32 percent. And in their two most recent games, they had shot 9-for-37 from the arc in Dallas and 6-for33 in Indiana.
So is that green light still glowing?
“Completely,” Brown said. “When you dissect it and do your homework, when you look at the last six games, it is barren. It is a drought, for sure. But I’m told in the previous 29 games, we were the No. 1 team in the NBA shooting threes. So to overreact to something like that, I am not going to do that. And I want our guys finding the room. Of course, when there are people right on your doorstep and there are chances to penetrate, we’ll take that, too.
“So that’s a long answer to say, ‘Yep, we will double down. We will look for threes.’”
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As the Sixers braced for their 42nd game Wednesday, and thus
the first in the second half of the season, Brown had begun to hint at his earliest plans for a playoff rotation.
That was 28 minutes that Matisse Thybulle played Monday in Indiana, while James Ennis did not play at all.
So start with that clue. “I want to try to grow Matisse,” Brown said. “And at some point, you are going to say, ‘Am I going to play 10 or nine?’ And the lion’s share of some of James’s minutes was shifted over to Matisse. I don’t believe it’s something you’re going to see a steady diet of. I wanted to try it. I did. Probably what you should hear most clearly is I want to try to grow Matisse.”
Thybulle started Wednesday, replacing Mike Scott, who’d been in the lineup the last three games.
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Before Joel Embiid’s finger surgery last Friday, the Sixers said there would be an update in one to two weeks.
With the first week just about up, Brown did reveal that Embiid was with the Sixers during a pregame shoot-around Wednesday.
“He’s engaged with his team,” Brown allowed. “What that means in relation to his time frame I don’t know. But I don’t think we’re going overboard in relation to doing anything we haven’t done in the past.”
Embiid is expected to miss up to another six weeks as he recovers from an operation to correct his dislocated left ring finger.
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Kenny Atkinson coached the Nets in a first-round playoff series against the Sixers last spring. With the Nets making their first visit to the Wells Fargo Center since that series, Atkinson
knows much has changed.
“No Jimmy Butler, no J.J. Redick,” Atkinson said. “They made some big-time changes. They are trying to figure things out. They are getting better. They have Al Horford, who can play the four or the five. Where he plays, that’s a nice problem to have. Al Horford is a very smart player. At the end of the year, he is going to be playing great basketball.”
The Sixers lost in Brooklyn, 109-89, in their meeting Dec. 15.
Though the Sixers are different, Atkinson insists they remain a handful.
“They are a top-five team in defensive efficiency,” he said. “And that always gives you a shot to be really, really good, now and in the playoffs.”
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Former Sixer Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot has found a niche in Brooklyn. According Atkinson, Luwawu-Cabarrot has become a reliable defender.
“I always liked him when he was with Philadelphia,” Atkinson said. “He has really busted it for us. He knows our system inside and out, and he has played very well defensively.”
Luwawu-Cabarrot had played 17 games, averaging 4.8 points, in his first season with the Nets.
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Even with Embiid out, the Sixers are resisting converting Norvel Pelle’s twoway contract to a full-time deal. With that, there soon will be an expiration date on the 45 total days the 26-year-old, shot-blocking center will have been eligible to be on an NBA roster.
The Sixers can make that move later. Until then, Brown said he will continue to play Pelle when he feels is beneficial to the Sixers and worry later about the ticking contract clock.
“Most likely,” the coach shrugged, resisting further discussion. “Yeah.”