Well, at least you can't blame this one on Jahlil. (Or the pressure of the Sixers not having won a game yet.) Playing mostly small ball-type lineups with Nerlens Noel at center — Jahlil Okafor serving his second of a two-game suspension — the Philadelphia 76ers again blew a fourth-quarter lead with half-court incompetence down the stretch, unable to get off a quality shot or grab a defensive board against the Denver Nuggets. Despite leading almost the entire second half, Philly ceded the lead with under a minute to go and never got it back. Final score: Nuggets 108, Sixers 105.
For 44 minutes, the Sixers played one of their most offensively fluid games of the season, moving the ball consistently, getting good looks behind the arc and hitting a ton of 'em — a beastly 15 of 31 from three, with five each from Robert Covington and Isaiah Canaan. They scrambled well on defense, switching constantly and trying to force jumpers, but the longer the game went on, the easier job the Nuggets had sucking in the defense and either kicking out to shooters, dumping off to big men, or missing wildly enough that Kenneth Faried and Danillo Galinari could pick off easy offensive boards for putback slams. The Nugs only claimed 13 O-boards on the evening but it felt like at least twice that many, and the Sixers inability to secure rebounds after forcing a miss proved their undoing.
In his second game as the Sixers' offensive focal point, Nerlens Noel was a mixed bag. He got loose for a couple easy slams and made seven trips to the line, but he's still badly miscast as a post scorer right now, and his attempts to go to the work in the half-court almost always ended disastrously, the Eraser ending the game with a team-high five TOs. He also only managed to grab five rebounds; an absolutely unacceptable number against a medium-sized Denver frontline with no Okafor to compete with.
Oh, and Noel was actually matched for turnovers by one Tony Wroten, who returned for the first time this season. In just 13 minutes, Wroten went 2-7 and gave the ball away five times, though he at least handed out three assists to go with the TOs. It was a messy performance for sure, though no one really should have expected more from T-Wrote after a near 12-month on-court absence. He'll help out soon enough, but it might be a few weeks first.
Just about everyone else played well — Covington had 18 and 10, Canaan 15 points on nine shots, Jerami Grant had four steals and two blocks, Hollis Thompson had a career-high six assists, and Richaun Holmes had maybe his best showing of the season, scoring ten on 4-4 shooting. (Even Nik Stauskas hit a couple threes — he's 8-17 from deep since missing the Boston game with injury, for whatever that's worth — and threw a gorgeous alley-oop to Nerlens, who of course then got a tech for hanging on the rim too long.) But down the stretch, there's still no one this team can go to that can reliably get a shot for themselves or others, and that's of course what we'd love to have Jahlil for if and when he can get his mind and body right.
1-20, sigh. Spurs next on Monday night — the less thought about that, the better. In the meantime, Happy Birthday Franklin, and let's go Sacramento dysfunction.