The Philadelphia 76ers enter Sunday night’s contest against the Brooklyn Nets fresh off losing to a team with one of the NBA’s worst records. Now they travel on the road to face a Nets team that beat them by 25 points earlier this month.
Let’s take a look at what Sixers fans should look for as they take on Brooklyn.
One thing that Nets coach Kenny Atkinson has always shown during his tenure is that his teams will shoot early and often from beyond the arc. Brooklyn is No. 3 in the league in 3-pointers made and No. 4 in attempts. They average more than 35 shots from deep per game and have six players who take over 42 percent of their total attempts from deep.
In their first meeting, Brooklyn attempted 28 shots from beyond the arc and made just nine. Both of those are below their average for the season. So Brett Brown has to keep his defenders aware of Nets players coming off screens and staying locked on 3-point attempts in transition. The Nets have already posted nine games with 35 or more attempts from 3-point range.
What Philadelphia struggled with on Friday was allowing the Cleveland guards to do what they wanted all game. Brooklyn has a group of guards that can do about the same. D’Angelo Russell, when he’s on his game, can get to the rim and if his shot is going in can be dangerous. Joe Harris is one of the underrated shooters in the game. He is very similar to Sixers guard JJ Redick in terms of coming off screens and being a knockdown shooter from deep.
Not to mention the Nets have an impressive sixth man in Spencer Dinwiddie. He averages 15.1 points per game and has scored in double-figures in 19 of the 20 games he’s played in. If the Sixers allow another 67 points to the Nets’ three-guard rotation as they did against Cleveland, it could be another long night.
If the Sixers video staff showed Embiid what Karl-Anthony Towns did to the Nets on Friday, he should be licking his chops. The Nets allowed plenty of chances for Towns to score inside against Jarrett Allen. Even though Towns had 21 points, when he got the ball with space he was able to score with ease.
Yes, Embiid had 24 points and 12 rebounds against the Cavaliers on Friday, but he only had 13 shot attempts. Philadelphia is 6-1 when he takes 22 or more shots in a game. So hopefully Brown and his staff have paid attention to that stat.
