76ers' Nick Nurse, Tyrese Maxey explain offensive woes cause defensive problems

11/25/2024 08:54 AM

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers couldn't even have a full weekend to celebrate the first win co-led by Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. Following a feel-good win on Friday, the Los Angeles Clippers shoved them back into their sorrowful basement in the standings, winning 125-99 and dropping their record to 3-13.

The Clippers diced the Sixers up from start to finish, making them look like they could do nothing right in front of their home crowd. Tyrese Maxey recognized the woes on offense — Philly shot 39.5 percent from the field and 23.1 percent from deep — created problems on defense. LA’s shooting splits on offense: 58.0 percent from the field and 40.0 percent from deep.

"It’s extremely hard because when you’re missing shots or you feel like a guy missed you or you feel like, 'Oh man, they didn’t call foul,' you don’t get back the way you should get back," Maxey said. "And then when you don’t get back the way you should get back, then your teammates try to cover for you. Now it’s a two-on-one, bang, they hit a three. Come down next possession. Either if we do get a good shot and miss or if we don’t get a good shot or we turn the ball over, they come back down, bang, that’s a 6-0 run."

Nick Nurse said the lack of offensive production exacerbating problems on defense "has been affecting us all year that way." The demoralizing feeling of coming up empty on offense despite doing some of the right things, he explained, can hurt on defense. There’s also the problem of trying to stay on top of a long rebound and how easily it can allow opponents to get into transition.

The 76ers have been the worst offense in the NBA this season, so defense is already going to be more challenging. But even beyond any problems caused by poor shooting, Philly’s defense against LA was dismal.

76ers’ offensive issues led to bad defense

Poor transition defense is an easy way to spiral into a defeat. The 76ers didn't bleed transition points — allowing 17, which was one fewer than they had and not an insanely high mark — but put themselves in horrible situations from the very start of possessions.

Sometimes, being put into a bind by bad offense is immediate and obvious. For example, Kris Dunn blowing up a dribble handoff in the first quarter led to a four-on-two fast break capped off by a Derrick Jones Jr. dunk. The Sixers committed 14 turnovers, right around their season average, but many of them were dead-ball turnovers, anyway.

Live-ball turnovers make defense extremely difficult. Coming down the other end after a missed shot creates some challenges, though not nearly at the same level. The mental switch from defense to offense must be quick and all five guys have to know what they're doing. So long as NBA teams can do that, they can at least challenge an offense by delaying its initial looks and forcing shots deeper into the shot clock. The Sixers were not up to this task.

When the Clippers corralled a defensive rebound and immediately charged up the court, they put pressure on the Sixers to match up instantly and start guarding. Early in the game, James Harden caught them flatfooted and got right into the paint. Philly had matched up but wasn't really ready to start defending. An athletic play by Kelly Oubre Jr. stopped Harden’s attempt but Ivica Zubac being ahead of everyone left him in a great position to secure the board.

Bad defense makes good offense harder to come by. Scoring early in the shot clock is the most efficient but almost impossible to do when you have to inbound the ball. Offenses that manufacture the looks Harden just did find it much easier to score, though it requires rebounding, shooting, and the sense to play up-tempo — things that do not come easily for these Sixers.

The start of the third quarter really exemplified how misses can lead to makes for the opponent. The next offensive possession for the Clippers after they scored on a five-on-four break because Maxey fell down, they opened up an open corner three with a pair of cuts. The Sixers failed to button up and were totally unready when the curtain lifted. Amir Coffey actually missed the open triple but Dunn swooped in for the second-chance points.

Having a few more seconds to set up defense means having to deal with fewer mismatches. On this play, Harden gets Andre Drummond on him because he and Dunn are pushing the ball up the court unaccounted for. Drummond hasn't been the most stout defender anyway but taking the tallest defender to the arc still means less size down low, especially against a small team like the Sixers.

The Sixers need to get back on track defensively. Their shooting is woeful and not likely to change any time soon, barring the return (and retention in the lineup) of their injured stars. Attention to detail and effort on defense have to be consistent. It's the least they can do while their primary sources of offense heal.

"We try to keep talking about, 'You gotta keep fighting, gotta keep pushing through.' It’s difficult," Maxey said. "It is difficult but you gotta keep going, gotta keep doing it every single time, man. We did a good job of just playing last game. They went on runs, we missed shots, we had bad possessions but every single time they made a push, we had an answer — and it has to be every single night."

76ers’ halfcourt defense gets picked apart

The double-sided blade that the 76ers stabbed themselves with was sending two to the ball without any urgency and not helping on the backside. All double-teaming did for the Sixers was take a defender out of the play. It was as if the ball itself had enough gravitational pull to physically pull them out of position.

On this play, Guerschon Yabusele steps up to the level of the screen to cut off Kevin Porter Jr. The pass goes to Zubac and, just like that, the Clippers have numbers. Oubre has a long way to go to help but dying on the screen and not dashing over to the corner gifts Nico Batum a WIDE-open triple. It was a nice welcome-back present for the beloved former Sixer, at least.

With the Sixers playing this loosely on defense, any run-of-the-mill NBA guard could have gotten great results out of their offense. But when one of the best playmakers of all time is in, it’s like Team USA facing a college team. The only things simpler than Zubac’s assists were Harden’s hockey assists.

Jones scored a pair of buckets in the paint because someone had to step up to guard Zubac. The big man had only four assists but his ability to catch and survey the floor allowed him to treat Philly’s defense like a doormat.

Harden had plenty of assists of his own — eight of them in just 27 minutes, the first of which coming just over two minutes into the game. Caleb Martin tagging Zubac on the roll dissuaded a pass from The Beard with the same level of resistance as a piece of cardboard in front of a charging bull. Then he got no help from his teammates down low. Big Zu sank the layup with ease.

That rep was bad and it only got worse.

Ahead of halftime, Zubac got another four-on-three advantage but had to start from the three-point line with a pass that was thrown behind him. It didn't matter. He had plenty of space to charge ahead and throw down a dunk. In those scenarios, the Sixers have to decide if they want Martin to stop the ball right there and have everyone rotate behind him or have Yabusele step in with Martin splitting the difference between their two assignments.

There's no excuse for the 76ers playing this out of sorts. There's going down without a fight, then there's going down easily, then there's 50 feet of crap and then there's Philly’s defensive performance in this one. The shorthanded Sixers need to start giving themselves chances to win. After that, they can start figuring out how to actually win.

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