CAMDEN, N.J.–As the Philadelphia 76ers return home on Saturday to finish the home-and-home series with the Atlanta Hawks, there are some issues that must be addressed in order to get back in the win column.
A big one is the turnover issue. In Thursday’s loss to the Hawks, Philadelphia committed 17 turnovers compared to just 15 assists. It’s safe to say that that type of production will not win many basketball games.
Shake Milton, who is assuming more responsibility with the injury to James Harden, discussed what the team has to do better to avoid those turnovers in the future.
“By being smart,” said Milton. “You never want to take away from being aggressive, but at the same time, you got to understand that as long as we take care of the ball, and we get good shots, we’re putting ourselves in the best position to win the game…offensively, we just get a shot up instead of turning the ball over, we’re in a better position to win the game”
The Sixers were right there with the Hawks late in the third before Atlanta found their groove on Thursday and they ran away for the win. So despite the offensive issues, Philadelphia has to be better on the defensive end as well in order to find success and move forward as a team.
“We got some things we got to get better at spacing-wise and just different ways of attacking, but defensively there’s always stuff we can dial in on and that’s what we’re working on today (Saturday),” Milton added. “Especially, at shootaround, just hammering home the little things whether it be how we’re handling the pick-and-roll or, that double action they keep doing at the top or different things like that. I’d say we’re getting better on both ends.”
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