PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers picked up a rather easy 123-104 win over the Houston Rockets on Monday. They led by as many as 26 despite looking like they were sleepwalking in the beginning.
Rebounding continues to be an issue for the Sixers. The Rockets outrebounded Philadelphia, 42-38, and they pulled down 15 offensive rebounds, including 11 in the first half before Philadelphia buckled down.
One could make the case the Sixers were lucky the Rockets are still a young team trying to find its way in the league. They couldn’t convert on a lot of the open looks generated off those offensive rebounds. If that effort came against any of the elite teams, Philadelphia would have been in a lot of trouble.
“It’s an area we have to keep working on,” said coach Doc Rivers. “They’re (the Rockets) different. We showed the film today (Monday) where four different times, all five guys, they’re just crashing in there. They’re athletic, they’re long, but we showed at halftime, three or four of those, we should have gotten. We should’ve hit bodies, and we don’t. That’s something we have to do.”
Normally, when the Sixers give up a lot of offensive rebounds, it’s due to the fact they can’t stop dribble penetration and Joel Embiid has to step up leaving the big man there to grab those boards.
Not in this case. Houston settled for a lot of jump shots and was quicker to the ball on those rebounding chances. That is going to have to improve if Philadelphia is to come out of the East and achieve its goals in the 2022-23 season.
“They got them off jump shots,” Rivers added. “They were just crashing and we didn’t put bodies on bodies. Tonight’s not anything to be alarmed about, but it’s something we have to be good at if we want to win big.”
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