Tag: T.J. Warren

Pacers’ T.J. Warren is suddenly unstoppable in the NBA bubble

T.J. Warren is playing MVP-level basketball in the bubble.

We’ve seen several NBA players take their games to another level inside the bubble in Orlando – from skinny Carmelo Anthony to Portland sharpshooter Gary Trent Jr. – but Indiana forward T.J. Warren is suddenly playing MVP-caliber basketball and has the Pacers challenging for a top-4 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Pacers beat the Lakers on Saturday to improve their bubble record to 4-1 – with the only loss coming against the red-hot Suns and Devin Booker – and Warren dropped 39 points on 15-of-22 shooting on the top-seeded team in the West. Warren is averaging a career-high 19.9 points per game in his first season with the Pacers, but over the last five games, Warren stat lines have been jaw-dropping.

In the bubble, Warren is averaging 34.8 points per game to lead all scorers in Orlando, and has become a dangerous outside threat. Warren is a career 36 percent shooter from three and never averaged more than 1.3 made threes per game in any previous month this season, but he’s averaging four made threes per game on 55 percent shooting in the bubble.

In his first bubble game, Warren dropped a career-high 53 points on the Sixers.

The Pacers are currently fifth in the Eastern Conference and share a record with No. 4 Miami, but will have a chance to jump into the top four in a game against the Heat on Monday.

Brett Brown aims to fix Sixers defensive issues in matchup vs. Wizards

The Philadelphia 76ers will aim to fix their defense in a matchup with the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.

The Philadelphia 76ers are building their championship quest on a foundation of defense and toughness. If one were to judge them by these first two games inside the bubble in Orlando, it would be laughable to match the Sixers and defense together.

Against two shorthanded teams, the Sixers have given up a combined 89 points in the fourth quarter of these first two games. The Indiana Pacers were missing All-Star Domantas Sabonis and Malcolm Brogdon while the San Antonio Spurs were missing their own All-Star in LaMarcus Aldridge and they scored 46 and 43 points in the fourth quarter, respectively.

“If you go to the first half over the first two games, I think we’ve just kind of cruised through it,” said coach Brett Brown. “Then the third period, both games pretty good, then the closeout period, we’ve been terrible and it starts with something as simple as just the ability to guard my man. Like ‘Can I sit in a stance? Can I move my feet two or three slides tops and then level a downhill driver off?’ Stuff that you were taught at any level of basketball and then it gets into other stuff that’s more coach speak and sophisticated where our technique on pick-and-roll defense.”

On Wednesday, the Sixers have another chance to fix their issues. The Washington Wizards are a team coming in missing superstar guard Bradley Beal while also missing Davis Bertans who is a known Sixers killer. Washington will be using “waterbug” quick point guards such as Ish Smith, Shabazz Napier, and Troy Brown Jr. in the pick-and-roll offense. So that is when knowing your personnel has to become a real point for Philadelphia.

“Whether it’s guarding the ball-handler and going up and picking him up at the pickup points and then the technique of going under, because it’s Dejounte Murray or going over because it’s Patty Mills, I’d say the same thing with the Wizards guards,” Brown continued. “It’s just knowing your personnel. So it comes down to just basic stuff of just guarding your man, it gets down to some KYP—knowing your personnel—and then there’s technique aspects of pick-and-roll that I just went through and so you can bucket it up into those areas, but all of them fall under a mentality.”

Philadelphia’s pick-and-roll defense is designed to allow guys to shoot long 2’s so the screener defender–in most cases, Joel Embiid–will drop back in order to protect the basket. Against the Pacers, Ben Simmons was not quick enough to get up on Warren on the screen and that gave him enough room to get off a shot.

Despite the success that both Indiana and San Antonio had in the pick-and-roll games thus far, Brown has no plans to change anything in terms of having Embiid be much more aggressive. Al Horford on the other hand? That is where the possibilities could change.

“With Indiana and with San Antonio, that’s their mojo, that is what they do,” Brown explained. “With Joel, to bring him out of where he is dominant, to bring him out of that area, I think the ripple effects of the many things that are more punishing rear their head. I think with Al, if you can probably mix in more unders, that may help this downhill torpedo going hard at Al.”

When Philadelphia takes on Washington on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. EST, it will have to come with a mentality on defense to make the right corrections on defense. Despite missing Beal and Bertans, Washington has a high powered offense that can kick it into high gear when the time comes.

“The NBA players are the best players in the world,” Brown finished with. “Whether we choose to play defense on a more competitive basis, but we get that disposition, that physicality, that’s when things are going to connect. In the meantime, that’s a clinic on what has happened in the first two regular-season games.” [lawrence-related id=36179,36170,36159]

T.J. Warren, the Spurs and 5 other huge surprises from the NBA bubble

Warren for bubble MVP!

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Charles Curtis is filling in for Andy Nesbitt today.

What the heck has gotten into T.J. Warren?

I’m really asking! I have no idea.

The Indiana Pacers forward has been a good scorer in the past few years, including in 2019-20. But ever since NBA action has kicked off in the bubble, he’s EXPLODED. He’s averaging 39.7 ppg in the Pacers’ three wins (that includes 53 against the Sixers), and that’s with Victor Oladipo playing too. Whatever it is, Indy is going to keep feeding him until he slows down, and it’s made the Pacers a suddenly-intriguing squad in the East.

He’s not the only surprise from Disney World. Let’s review some others:

1. The Spurs’ four-guard lineup: I just declared San Antonio was suddenly the team who could grab the No. 8 seed in the West, and our Mike Sykes put them at the top of his power rankings of the teams vying for the last Western spot in the postseason. Coach Pop has once again figured out how to adjust with what he’s got. With no LaMarcus Aldridge, he’s gone with a small lineup surrounding shot-blocker Jakob Poeltl, while upping the pace too. It’s working!

2. The Grizzlies’ struggles: Maybe this isn’t a huge surprise to everyone given their inexperience and the fact that the bubble is like a playoff scenario. But they’re 0-3 and just lost Jaren Jackson Jr. for the season.

3. The Nets’ win over the Bucks: Let’s not read too much into Milwaukee’s play against an extremely decimated Brooklyn squad. But the Nets pulled off the biggest upset from a betting perspective on Tuesday. You can’t get more surprising than that.

4. The Rockets’ small ball experiment is mostly working: I had my doubts, but as long as James Harden and Russell Westbrook don’t have bad games like they did in the loss to the Blazers on Tuesday, they’ve got a shot in the West. The only problem, as we keep seeing in the bubble, is they keep getting outrebounded BADLY (on Tuesday, they grabbed 39 boards to the Blazers’ 64). Something to watch going forward.

5. The robot sideline cam is awesome: Who knew we needed a camera angle on the floor of an NBA game that isn’t under the basket?

Tuesday’s biggest winner: J. Cole.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The rapper might be training in an attempt to make it to the NBA, and the Pistons said on Twitter they’d give him a tryout.

Quick hits: Kelly Stafford, Indy 500, Chicago Sky

– Kelly Stafford called out the NFL about its COVID-19 testing system after Matthew Stafford had a false-positive.

– As our Michelle Martinelli wrote, the Indy 500 made the right call to exclude fans.

– Chicago Sky players wore shirts that took a shot at Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler, calling for people to vote for her opponent in a U.S. Senate race.

Brett Brown upset with unacceptable defense, toughness from Sixers

Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown is upset with his team’s lack of defense or toughness against the Indiana Pacers.

The Philadelphia 76ers are a team that is built on defense, speed, and length. However, the complete opposite happened on Saturday in their restart opener as they fell to the Indiana Pacers 127-121 and they allowed T.J. Warren to score a career-high 53 points.

Warren’s heroics aside, the Sixers allowed the Pacers to score a ridiculous 46 points in the fourth quarter and that was what did them in. It was troubling considering Indiana was missing All-Star Domantas Sabonis as well as former Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon. Warren scored 19 of those 46 for Indiana.

As the team got back to practice on Sunday, that is something that must be addressed.

“For me, you look at the defensive intensity coming out in the third period. I liked what I saw,” said coach Brett Brown. “I liked watching Ben Simmons sit in a stance and get stuck into T.J. Warren at times. I liked watching J-Rich (Josh Richardson) stalk the Holiday brothers around. Then you fast forward and you say ‘A 46 point closeout period?’ That’s not acceptable. You’re not going to do anything of value unless you fix that so that’s where my head is at. You’re going to come in today and speak the truth and hold these guys’ spirit together, but the toughness question is a simple answer for me.”

Just for reference, Warren scored 24 points and shot 9-for-10 from the floor when defended by Simmons. It was an overall disappointing effort for a guy who is a legitimate Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

It was a game that showed that the Sixers need to get tougher as a team. They will not go deep into the playoffs or achieve their objective if they do not become mentally tougher and figure out their issues on a regular basis, then they won’t last long in the playoffs and that’s just the facts put plainly.

“The toughness aspect is and will always be, that is the thing that allows you to put a crown on some team,” Brown continued. “There’s no team that I’ve ever been around in 20 years of this league that you say ‘Wow that was a pretty team. They just outran, outscored, and out finessed everybody and they’re the champions’. I’ve never seen that once. In fact, it’s not even close.”

The toughness factor will affect two aspects for Philadelphia and that is their work on the defensive end and the number of turnovers they committed. Shake Milton, for example, had a rough night as he was bothered by the pressure put on by Aaron Holiday and T.J. McConnell and that is something that Brown would like to see fixed.

“There were seven of them that were like a moving screen, there was an offensive foul just driving to the basket, the turnovers that most upset me are like a sloppy pass or something like trying to get Shake the ball full court and T.J. mugs him,” Brown added. “The turnovers are probably eight of them that you just say ‘that’s not good enough’.”

Their next matchup is Monday against the San Antonio Spurs and that will give the team their next shot at figuring out their issues moving forward. [lawrence-related id=36010,35999,35982]

Tobias Harris says Sixers were served humble pie in loss to Pacers

Tobias Harris says the Philadelphia 76ers were served up some humble pie by the Indiana Pacers.

The Philadelphia 76ers had a ton of hype going into the Orlando restart. They made a splashy change to the starting lineup by inserting young Shake Milton over Al Horford and moving Ben Simmons over to the power forward spot. They looked good in their three scrimmage games, but then the game counted for real and it was rough.

The Sixers faced a Pacers team missing All-Star Domantas Sabonis as well as former Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon and they were lit up by T.J. Warren who scored a career-high 53 points. It all resulted in a 127-121 loss despite 41 points and 21 rebounds from Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris pouring in 30 points.

“Some humble pie for us to be honest,” said Harris. “To really affirm to us that any team at any time can have a really good game and beat you. We had leads in the game that we should have been able to hold on to, but we didn’t give enough to continue to push that momentum forward.”

The Sixers committed 21 turnovers on the night–14 coming in the first half–and they were not able to hold on to a double-digit lead. Shake Milton had a rough night going scoreless and committing three turnovers and Simmons committed four turnovers as well.

“It just goes to show we’ve got to be able to take care of the basketball,” Harris added. “We’ve got to be able to be locked in with one another. It’s the first game back and we’ve got to be better and we’ve got to improve. That’s pretty much it.”

Coach Brett Brown looked down at the stat sheet after the game was over and frowned over Warren’s night, but his main guys of Embiid, Harris, and Simmons all had some good games and that is something that he is happy with moving forward.

“Joel did what he had to do,” explained Brown. “He brought it upon himself to try and get us a win, oftentimes, on his own back. I thought Tobias played well, I thought Joel was dominant, I thought Ben had a good game. Those three players, you would look at a stat sheet and by the eye test, they were pretty good. We needed more contributors, we didn’t get it and it can’t just rest solely on those three players’ doorstep. We’re going to need more help starting with playing better defense.”

The Sixers will take on the San Antonio Spurs on Monday to continue their season resumption. [lawrence-related id=35982,35975,35959]

Sixers offer words of encouragement for Shake Milton after tough night

The Philadelphia 76ers all have words of encouragement for Shake Milton after a loss to the Indiana Pacers.

The Philadelphia 76ers officially debuted their new starting lineup on Saturday night as they took on the Indiana Pacers in their official restart opener in Orlando. The results were disastrous as they allowed T.J. Warren to score a career-high 53 points in a 127-121 loss.

Shake Milton drew the ire of teammate Joel Embiid after an initial struggle to begin the game. The two of them had a heated exchange on the bench at the end of the first quarter–which Embiid said was “nothing”–but it was an overall tough night for the young man out of SMU.

His final stat line was zero points on 0-for-1 shooting with three assists and three turnovers and five fouls. He had trouble dealing with Indiana’s pressure and that’s what stood out for him.

“I thought he struggled tonight. I thought he got sped up in his mind,” said coach Brett Brown. “He got scored on initially pretty quickly and he had a discussion about pick-and-roll defense, he and Jo about what direction the screen was coming. I thought that he chased, for the most part, all game. I think it was born out of frustration, I think that his foul trouble didn’t help him stay in a game and find a rhythm, but I thought tonight Shake struggled.”

The big key to remember is that Milton is just 23-years old. Sure, he did get rattled by the physical Pacers defense a bit, but now is the time to keep his head high and to keep moving forward. He has to be able to learn from this.

“Stay confident,” said Tobias Harris. “We all have confidence in Shake. It’s one game, the first official game really, running the unit. He’s a great player. He’s going to continue to get better game after game, but the biggest thing is to hold his confidence up all the way throughout and I’ll reaffirm on that and keep him right.”

On top of that, this was the first official game with a brand new starting lineup. A lot of the kinks need to be continued to work out. This is only the first of eight games and this is where Milton will learn and move forward as a player and the Sixers will grow as a group.

“It’s the first game for a new starting lineup,” added Embiid. “We have seven more games to try and find the balance and to use it better and play together. I’m sure we’re going to do that. I don’t think there’s any problems. I’m going to do everything I can to make it happen and being down low to try and help my teammates. I think we just need to find a rhythm.”

Philadelphia will next face the San Antonio Spurs on Monday. [lawrence-related id=35982,35964,35959]

Sixers try to explain what went wrong against T.J. Warren, Pacers

The Philadelphia 76ers try to explain what went wrong against T.J. Warren on Saturday.

The Philadelphia 76ers were prepared to go into Orlando and get off on the right foot, but then they ran into the buzzsaw that is T.J. Warren and the Indiana Pacers.

Warren scored a ridiculous career-high 53 points and led Indiana to a 127-121 win over the Sixers to begin the season restart inside the bubble. The win moves the Pacers up to the 5 seed all by themself and they now have the upper hand on Philadelphia.

The Sixers primarily used their two elite defenders in Matisse Thybulle and Ben Simmons on Warren, but he shot 9-for-12 from deep and it was too easy for him. He had 29 points in the first half on his way to the win.

“I think that the space that we gave him was too generous,” said coach Brett Brown. “I think that when you have Matisse and Ben, you normally feel comfortable that those two can tag-team a player and he was great tonight. Maybe we could have double-teamed him sooner than we tried to. They have tremendous 3-point shooters behind the double team, so you try to pick your poison.”

Warren is a guy who came in averaging 18.7 points on the season, but he was averaging 23.7 points in the three previous games with the 76ers. He clearly is a guy that can put up big numbers and Philadelphia did not respect that on Saturday.

“Give him credit, he was hot,” said Tobias Harris. “Too many times we were guarding him like he wasn’t on fire. We gave him too much space. Just not enough credit for his ability to score and he punished us tonight from the beginning of the game on. We definitely could have done a better job as a whole for sure. He did make some tough shots though, give him credit.”

Warren is a guy who has scored at least 18 points per game over the last three seasons so it isn’t like he can’t score. The Sixers have got to be able to adjust from the beginning especially after he got off to such a hot start in this one.

“Defensively, T.J. Warren, we just got to do a better job as a team,” said Joel Embiid. “It’s not just on one guy. We’ve got to help each other, we’ve got to stop him. That can’t happen. We’re too good defensively and we have too many great defensive players, but we’ve got to do a better job of adjusting as the game goes on. He started hot and we need to do a better job of adjusting and making sure we contain our position.”

The Sixers will move on to face the San Antonio Spurs on Monday looking to bounce back from this poor defensive effort. [lawrence-related id=35975,35964,35959]

Three observations from Sixers loss to T.J. Warren, Pacers in Orlando

Here are three observations found in the Philadelphia 76ers loss to the Indiana Pacers.

The Philadelphia 76ers got back at it on Saturday night when they took on the Indiana Pacers looking to get off on the right foot, but it did not work out in their favor. Indiana forced a large number of turnovers and they raced out to an early lead on their way to a 127-121 win over Philadelphia.

T.J. Warren—who has been a thorn in the side of the Sixers all season—scored 29 points in the first half on his way to 53 for the game and Philadelphia just was not able to find an answer for him at all on this night.

With that said, here are three observations that were seen in this loss for Philadelphia:

Turnovers

Coach Brett Brown was very wary of turnovers heading into this matchup due to the smaller Pacers wanting to get out and run. Philadelphia committed 14 turnovers in the first half which allowed Indiana to get out and run and in the lead at halftime. Shake Milton got off to a tough start which then led to a heated verbal exchange with Joel Embiid. He then got into foul trouble and that led to a lot of Raul Neto minutes.

In the second half, Philadelphia was able to figure out their issues and they were able to creep back into the game which then led to a lead of six after three. They only had four turnovers in the quarter mostly with Neto running things on offense. Milton then came back in and while he did not commit a turnover the rest of the way, he did not make the same impact expected of him. He finished scoreless and three assists with the three turnovers. The team finished with 21 turnovers on the night.

Double teams

As expected, Indiana sent waves of double teams and defenders towards Embiid. It was a mixed bag in terms of results as there were times when he was able to attack relentlessly and then there were times where he did not react quick enough and he had a bad turnover. He also had four assists so that is something positive he can take moving forward.

Overall, Embiid was something special on the offensive end. Indiana only had Myles Turner to throw at him and he feasted with an array of post moves and just sheer force on his way to a huge night. Without Domantas Sabonis, that was exactly what he was supposed to do in this type of game. He finished with 41 points, 21 rebounds, and three blocks with the four assists.

Tobias Harris’ versatility

Harris had a really solid night overall. There were plenty of instances where he threw the offense on his back and kept them afloat when things weren’t going so well in the first half. He was aggressive taking 29 shots on the night and taking a good amount of 3-pointers with eight to score 30 points.

Defensively, he wasn’t awful. Sure, he got torched a few times by Warren, but everybody got torched by Warren on this night. Harris had a steal and a block and he moved his feet well all night long. He took steps forward towards that two-way level Brown wants him at. [lawrence-related id=35959,35953,35945]

The Boston Celtics have a chance to clinch a playoff spot Tuesday night

The Boston Celtics have gone 4-5 following the NBA’s All-Star break

With 19 games left in their regular season, the Boston Celtics have an opportunity Tuesday to be the third Eastern Conference team to clinch a playoff spot.

According to Boston.com’s Celtics Twitter account, the Celtics can earn a playoff berth with a win against the Indiana Pacers or if the Washington Wizards lose to the New York Knicks. The Celtics and Pacers will tipoff in Bankers Life Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. EST.

The Celtics are currently ranked third in the East, right behind the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors. Boston had a successful February in large part because of Jayson Tatum’s surge.

With Tatum averaging 30.7 points in February, the Celtics went 9-3 during the month.

The Wizards are currently ranked ninth in the East, with a record of 23-40.

The Pacers have been surging lately, winning six of their last seven. T.J. Warren has played in six of the last seven games, as he was out during the Pacers’ loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday because of a laceration on his leg, per J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star.  In his past six games, Warren has averaged 20.2 points per game and 5.0 rebounds.

[lawrence-related id=30578,30572,30551,30543]

A complete breakdown of Jimmy Butler vs. T.J. Warren, the scuffle that spilled over to Instagram

Boy, this escalated quickly.

NBA players — and front offices too, I’d bet — everywhere know that getting on Jimmy Butler’s bad side isn’t the best idea.

And on Wednesday night, Indiana Pacers forward T.J. Warren got on Butler’s bad side.

The resulted was a pair of incidents that eventually resulted in Warren being ejected. Then, Butler called out Warren in postgame interviews and then took to Instagram to literally circle the next time his Miami Heat would play the Pacers again.

Yep. You’re witnessing the birth of a new NBA rivalry.

Let’s start with the original incident: Butler didn’t like the way Warren fouled him in the third quarter of the game, and if you’re a lip-reader, you can see Butler had some NSFW language for Warren:

Then, Butler nailed Warren with a shoulder to the chest for a foul of his own … and Warren clapped right near his opponent, resulting in a second technical foul and an ejection. Butler blew him a kiss goodbye:

It didn’t end there. Butler claimed that Warren said some disrespectful stuff to him. He then called Warren “soft” and “trash”:

And then Butler posted this on Instagram:

“@t.warren1 don’t be mad you can’t guard me. we will see what you about in March.”

Hoo boy. His teammates backed him up, too:

So, uh, see you all in March.

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