PHILADELPHIA — A big word the Philadelphia 76ers will use when discussing their offense is pace. They want to play fast. That doesn’t necessarily mean getting into a track meet and scoring on the break, but it means pushing the ball ahead to get into their sets.
In the first three games, they weren’t able to do so as they fell to 0-3. They ended up scoring 117 points, 88 and 105 points in those three games, respectively. The Sixers just weren’t able to play their style of basketball despite James Harden having big games individually.
In Monday’s win over the Indiana Pacers, they pushed the ball ahead and they ended up scoring 120 points while taking 43 3-pointers, making 19 of them. That type of production is what the Sixers want to see out on the floor when it comes to their offensive production.
“It gives us more time to create a better shot,” said Harden. “When you’re walking the ball up, you’re limiting yourself. We want our pace to pick up a little bit more. First couple games, I put that on myself just because I was playing against some really good individual defensive players,”
Harden has a point in the loss to the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks as he was being defended by the Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart in Boston and then it was Jrue Holiday with the Bucks.
With that being said, in order for the Sixers to continue having success on the offensive end, they have to keep pushing the pace. They have to be able to move the ball quickly and continue taking open 3-pointers.
“I gotta push the ball up, push the tempo, but our ball-handlers do a good job of that and that’s gonna give us more opportunities on the back end when the shot clock is going down,” Harden added. “Tonight (Monday) was a good start. We just gotta keep it up.”
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