With the NBA in infinite quarantine, I am continuing my quarantine diary where I give my thoughts to a game whenever a game becomes accessible. These will become a bit more frequent now that all games have become accessible.
Tuesday’s edition focuses on the fifth game of the 2019-20 season as the Philadelphia 76ers took their show out on the road to the west coast to take on the Portland Trail Blazers in a thriller. It was a night where the Sixers got some unexpected help with Joel Embiid out with a suspension.
First Quarter
- Matisse Thybulle starts out on Damian Lillard in this one. The Sixers switch the screen and Ben Simmons then picks him up and he forces Lillard into a 3-point miss. I’m looking forward to that matchup all night long.
- Portland uses a screen to get Lillard open for a triple. That is how the Blazers operate most of their offense so this is where Al Horford will have to show more help on the screens or else Lillard will kill them all night from out there.
- Wow! Thybulle leaps from out of position to reject Rodney Hood from the 3-point line and it leads to a Simmons layup. That was an impressive defensive play by the rookie.
- Without Embiid, the Sixers have to turn to Kyle O’Quinn and he gives some good minutes. He shows range on a triple and Philadelphia ties it at 25.
- Portland responds with a 7-0 run, but Josh Richardson makes a play happen with his dribble penetration and he hits Horford for a layup at the buzzer. The Sixers trail 32-27 after one.
Second Quarter
- Richardson begins the second quarter playing point guard with Simmons on the bench. Brett Brown has yet to really give Raul Neto or Trey Burke a real opportunity.
- Furkan Korkmaz continues his solid play from the previous game. He knocks down a couple of 3-pointers in seven minutes thus far and then Horford had a nice steal off a switch and he goes all the way in for a layup. That was shocking.
- Side note, Korkmaz is getting destroyed on defense.
- Simmons enters at the 7:36 mark for Richardson so that ends the point J-Rich experiment.
- The Blazers are going bonkers from deep. Hood hits back-to-back triples and Lillard then drilled one on another dribble handoff and the Blazers lead it 60-45 thanks to a 15-0 run. It ends on a Mike Scott triple for Philadelphia before Hood hits another three.
- Horford knocks down a triple to end the half to trim the Sixers deficit to 11 at halftime. As long as they stick a body to Hood and Lillard, they should be in a position to come back and rally in this one.
Third Quarter
- Korkmaz starts the second half in place of Thybulle. Brown is clearly looking for more offense at this point in the game so much so that he is sacrificing Thybulle’s elite defense.
- Mario Hezonja knocks down a free-throw for Portland and they are now at 17 free throws for the game compared to just two for the Sixers. That can be an issue in a game like this.
- Combine the foul line disparity with the 3-point shooting of Portland and it results in a 93-75 lead in the third. Simmons has been a bit of a non-factor since scoring 11 points in the opening quarter. Tobias Harris, meanwhile, has 17 points and is trying to keep Philadelphia in this one.
- Anthony Tolliver drills a corner triple and the Blazers lead is 100-81. The Sixers then insert Neto into the game and he comes up with a steal that leads to a Scott triple. That jump-starts an 11-2 run and the Sixers are trailing 102-92 after three. The defense in this one has not been up to their par to begin the season.
Fourth Quarter
- The Sixers open the quarter on an 8-1 run as Neto is making a difference out there. Neto grabs the rebound off a Kent Bazemore miss and he runs the floor to find Horford for a layup, Richardson scores, and then Neto scores on a layup to make it 103-100. This is all part of a 19-3 run since the third quarter to begin getting themselves back into it.
- Sheesh! The Blazers, of course, have an answer at home, but Lillard is just something else. He drills a deep fall-away 3-pointer to go up 121-113 with 5:05 left. Lillard is just something else, man. That’s ridiculous.
- Richardson finally gets a three to drop after missing his first four. Philadelphia is within 121-118 and is making a game out of it after trailing by as many as 21. You have to give credit to this group.
- Richardson finds Horford for a big slam and the Sixers are within one. After a C.J. McCollum miss, Hezonja fouls Simmons on a loose ball play which Portland coach Terry Stotts challenges–now is the good time for a challenge, by the way–and it fails. Simmons immediately steps up and calmly knocks down two from the line. Philadelphia leads 126-125 with 10.1 ticks left.
- Anfernee Simons then drills a clutch corner triple with the Sixers deciding to double Lillard. That’s the right move, make somebody else beat you. There’s 2.2 seconds left. Brown has a chance to draw up a play here for the win.
- They draw up a play for…KORKMAZ!? And he drills it!? On the road!? What kind of alternate dimension are we in here!? Philadelphia wins it 129-128 on the road.
The Sixers are now 5-0 on the season thanks to the heroics of Korkmaz who was a non-factor for the first 3.5 games of the season. Horford led the Sixers with 25 points, seven assists, and five rebounds, Harris had 23 points and seven rebounds, and Simmons had 18 points and 11 rebounds with eight assists while Korkmaz had 12. The young Turk also received some love from Embiid in this one. What an impressive win on the young season for this team.
The road trip continues against the Phoenix Suns up next. [lawrence-related id=28183,28177,28111]