SAN ANTONIO — Ben Simmons was seven years old the last time the Sixers beat the Spurs in San Antonio.
Jan. 3, 2004 became a distant memory on Friday night when the Sixers snapped a 13-game road losing skid and dominated the Spurs, 97-78 (see observations).
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“The old Sixers,” Simmons said when asked about the end of the skid. “We’ve got to come in with a new mentality and we’ve got to leave the past behind and play the way we play.”
The Sixers showed a new side, new even to this season.
They rank last in the league in turnovers, an area that has plagued them for years and has been creeping up on a young team learning to gel while playing at a fast pace. In this game, the Sixers committed just nine, including a turnover-less first quarter and one in the first half.
Joel Embiid, who leads the team with over four per game, did not commit any for only the third time in his career. The bench was also free of turnovers with the exception of a late error by Larry Drew II.
NBA
“Everybody had each other’s back,” Embiid said. “Offensively, we took care of the ball and we ended up with [nine] turnovers. That has been the main key going into the game — taking care of the ball and fouling less, and we did that.”
Prior to the game, Simmons outlined the Sixers’ approach as “go in and play tough, be consistent, take care of the ball, and rebound.” The Sixers out-rebounded the Spurs 50-36, including 12 to five on the offensive glass. Embiid accounted for 14 of those boards en route to his fifth double-double in seven games.
“Our defense was the thing that stood out most to me,” Brett Brown said.
The fact the Spurs were shorthanded was not lost on the Sixers. While they are proud to improve to 24-21 with a unique season sweep of the Spurs, Embiid pointed out that San Antonio wasn’t playing at full strength. Kawhi Leonard (return from injury management), Manu Ginobili (right thigh contusion) and Rudy Gay (right heel bursitis) were sidelined.
“It’s a great win. I’ll take it, but you always want to play against the best,” Embiid said. “They’re not a hundred percent. That’s a great win, but sometimes you also want to measure yourself to the best.”
In years past, and maybe even earlier this season, a shorthanded Spurs team still would have beaten the Sixers. But as they won for the 10th time in 13 games, the Sixers aren’t thinking about what their previous squads would have done.
“Everything that happened in the past is the past,” Robert Covington said. “We’re here now. We tend to forget all that stuff. It’s a new day and it’s a new team. It was rough times then but now we’ve got the pieces that we’ve been waiting on and now it’s here.”