CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers found themselves in an early hole on Friday when they paid a visit to the Detroit Pistons. The young, short-handed squad in Detroit gave the Sixers all they could handle as they held a 16-point lead early.
Eventually, the Sixers made their adjustments and they rallied to lead by as many as 17 on their way to a 114-106 win in their first in-season tournament game. Philadelphia completely turned the game around after the slow start.
As the Sixers got back to work at practice on Saturday, coach Nick Nurse and the Sixers discussed some lessons learned as they move forward.
“We were pretty mindful of the coverages we were starting in that would possibly give them a crack at some mid-range jump shot and they just happened to make every one of them,” said Nurse. “I mean, you probably know sometimes what your best coverages are in a game, but you don’t want to use them the entire time, because they just don’t have enough of a shelf life. So there’s a little bit of that, but it’s also more of us just not quite being alert and ready to go.”
Nurse is right about the mid-range jumpers. Pistons star Cade Cunningham started 4-for-4 on the night as he was walking into easy looks from the mid-range and Detroit was able to get off to the hot start.
Eventually, the Sixers made adjustments. Nurse put Kelly Oubre Jr. on Cunningham and Philadelphia forced him into play in a crowd more and he saw more defenders as he finished 4-for-18 the rest of the night after the hot start.
“We can’t take anybody lightly,” added Oubre Jr. “I don’t think we did, but they played harder than us. They play really physical already. That’s their identity as a team and we just have to go in there with our game plan and be efficient, aggressive, and pretty much punch first.”
The fact that the Sixers didn’t panic and were able to stay together and rally is a sign of a team that has grown in the mental toughness area.
“It’s gonna happen,” added Robert Covington. “It’s part of NBA. That’s why you play 48 minutes. Teams are gonna make runs. They made their run very early. They was into it, their energy was—they was more physical than us, but we turned around in the second half and we calmed down and we just rallied and got together and we did what we supposed to do.”
The Sixers will play host to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday looking to keep the winning streak going.
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