[jwplayer oxAdaBIS-z6KDnl0B]
The Philadelphia 76ers picked up a much-needed 114-106 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday to put a stop to a three-game losing skid and it gave some good vibes to the team. However, despite the win, there are still some issues the Sixers must figure out.
One of them is limiting turnovers which have been their biggest issue to begin the season. Their turnovers cost them the game in Denver to end the road trip and their 20 turnovers on Sunday, 12 of which came in the first half, were an eyesore.
Coach Brett Brown understands that this is a new team and it will take time to figure everything out, but the turnovers are an issue as he stated:
This is what I tell the team: until we can fix this, this is a house built on sand. It is fool’s gold and we have to find a discipline and a better way to control that. The turnovers in the first half, some of them were live ball, a lot of them were just getting things batted out of our hands. We can’t fool ourselves, this is a problem. This is a problem and we need to own it.
Generally, turnovers are a coaching issue that needs to be taken care of and it falls on Brown and his staff to help the players understand their issue so they can grow in that area.
I’m the head coach. I’ve got to find a way to fix it. There needs to be a level of accountability with the players and that’s that. It’s not anything we take lightly, we don’t dismiss it, the times are over where you’re looking at some of the young guys and you can justify it. You can’t do that anymore and it’s time that we get better at that. The players know it, they understand it, but we’ve got to fix it. That’s how I see the turnover thing in general.
Tobias Harris, who had a team-high four turnovers to go along with his 14 points, has accepted his role in the turnover issue and understands that he needs to better as well.
Yeah, I mean that’s been our biggest thing this year. A lot of them have just come from myself, like today with two travels in the beginning. We were continuing to find each other and our spots. We were looking at how we want to play and things we can do to execute better, so if we can just limit the turnovers to half of those and protect the ball a little bit better, I think that’ll help us out a whole lot.
The Sixers entered the night ranked 20th in the league in turnovers averaging 18.5 per game and with the 20 they tallied on Sunday, the number will rise a tad.
A lot of it is due to the newness of the team and it will take time to get the chemistry down pat and for them to feel each other out, but this is a very real issue for Philadelphia. They can get away with it against the Hornets, but against the better teams, it will cost them games.