Bob Cooney, STAFF WRITER
Posted:
Monday, February 29, 2016, 12:16 AM
ORLANDO - Like Monday's date, you can only hope that a first-half performance as bad as the one the 76ers had against the Orlando Magic on Sunday will only come once every four years.
The Orlando Magic shredded the Sixers' halfhearted defense with 77 first-half points, one off the franchise record, and rolled to a 130-116 victory. It was the eighth consecutive loss for the Sixers and 12th in 13 games. Since returning from the All-Star break six games ago, the defense has been non-existent. Only a valiant second-half effort in which the Sixers outscored Orlando, 65-53, made this one somewhat respectable.
"There were things that aren't acceptable, aren't professional, that aren't anything that we stand for or drill at, and you call them out is what you do," said a very intense Brett Brown of his halftime talk with the team. "They have some good, young talent, but I think we started as poor as poor can be. It's unacceptable. It's not professional. The only thing that we did in the second half was do our job. And that's how I see it. Everybody was poor."
Part of the problem starts with Brown's plan to play Jahlil Okafor at the power forward spot for the rest of the season while keeping Nerlens Noel at the center position. But the Magic's Nik Vucevic did whatever he wanted against Noel when he was in the game, and when Okafor matched up with him, there wasn't much difference as Vucevic ended up with 28 points before fouling out. Aaron Gordon, Okafor's power-forward matchup, found many wide-open jumpers and quick drives to the rim on his way to 22 points.
The poor defense wasn't all the big men's fault, however, as guard Victor Oladipo sliced his way to 28 points for the Magic (26-32), who kept their playoff hopes alive after recently suffering two lopsided losses.
While Okafor did his part at the offensive end with 26 points on 12-for-18 shooting, the defensive part of his game was again worrisome. Brown said he knew there was going to be some pain when Okafor started guarding smaller, quicker players, but this might be a little more than he expected.
Okafor is still just 20 and only 53 games into his NBA career. The Sixers insist there has been improvement and firmly believe more will come.
"It's just the awareness of it. It's different in the NBA," said Elton Brand. "You can play zone in college, camp in the lane defensively, you can do things differently. Here, for him, it's just the awareness. He can move his feet fine and he wants to compete, but it's just the awareness. Running back and seeing a John Wall, or a speedy point guard coming at him, it's just anticipating the next play, the next step. Even if I don't need to be there, I may need to be there. Because in this league if you have to think about it, it's too late. That's it, his awareness and his anticipation. Other than that, he's fine.
"He's there, he's running back, he's ahead of the ball. He just has to see things a little bit better. It's not a lack of effort. It's just a case of not being sure and then that leads to being out of position and it doesn't look good. But he's trying and he'll get it. It's not like he's getting beat down the court every time."
Isaiah Canaan scored 18 and Ish Smith 17 to back Okafor. Robert Covington added 14 and Jerami Grant scored 13 and also blocked five shots for the Sixers, who dropped to 8-51.
"We don't want our record to define how people look at us," Brown said. "For the most part I feel like we've gained the respect of the league because we play hard. We haven't done that much since the All-Star break. I don't know why. And that's a fact. That's hard to swallow and completely unacceptable. We need to find who we are. For the most part, we compete. Tonight, we didn't do our job in the first half and that is not going to work. And that's that."
The team has given up an average of 119.7 points in the six games since the break. Defense seems to be an afterthought, at best. The fact the Sixers shot 53.2 perent against Orlando and still lost in the manner that they did goes directly to a horrendous defensive effort.
"We just didn't have enough fight in the first half," said Grant, who also posted eight rebounds and three steals. "I think it's just communication. We have to talk as a team. Sometimes we have little mishaps where we forget to talk or forget the schemes. But the schemes are there. It's really just us."
cooneyb@phillynews.com
@BobCooney76
Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog
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