Sixers look to maintain impressive trend on defense – NBC Sports Philadelphia

Despite the team’s atrocious 3-14 start, the Sixers had no clear strengths. They were terrible offensively and mediocre defensively.

They have been one of the best teams in the NBA on defense lately. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Sixers rank second in the league in non-garbage time defensive rating as of November 30th. While they’ve had several offenses ranked in the bottom ten (the Hornets, Magic and Pistons), it’s still been an impressive stretch . In the halfcourt, the Sixers have allowed just 83.0 points per 100 games during their 4-1 run.

“Guarding the ball,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said after practice Thursday. “Communicate. Defense, that’s obviously a team possession, right? All five of us are becoming increasingly connected, no matter who is out there on the pitch.

“And we are more physically active. We don’t get punched in the face like we used to. We actually hold our own and beat others.”

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was also more inclined to change his plans. In their miniseries against Orlando last week, the Sixers played an effective zone defense and even mixed in a box-and-one with KJ Martin against Franz Wagner.

“We’re changing a lot more, probably (more) than we’ve had in a long time,” Nurse said. “And just trying to understand when switching, everyone ends up at every spot, you just have to make sure everyone is ready to cover. And the range of defensive players we have played with here recently is getting bigger and bigger.”

Oubre was happy to have done everything.

“I don’t care,” he said. “I love guarding. When you switch, it’s easier to keep your man on top because there’s always someone ahead of him. But no matter what the reporting looks like, I’m happy to do it. I love running through screens, rocking my shoulders and all that stuff. Getting stops is my top priority.”

After a subpar start to the season, Oubre has performed consistently well on both ends of the floor in recent weeks. The left wing has scored double-digit points in eight straight games (with better shooting percentages) and has won in 11 straight games. Oubre, Jared McCain and Guerschon Yabusele are the only Sixers to appear in all of the team’s 22 games.

The Sixers will be without Caleb Martin (right shoulder impingement) and Adem Bona (left knee tendinopathy) for Friday night’s meeting with the 10-15 Pacers. Nurse noted Wednesday that Martin physically “has everything under control” and played despite being “nowhere near 100 percent.” He assumed that Bona would be able to return to practice “soon”.

“I think it’s taking a little longer than we hoped at this point, so I think it’s day by day,” Nurse said Thursday of the rookie big man.

As far as available centers go, Joel Embiid is on track to start his sixth game of the season.

Although Nurse said he’s not sure if Embiid will have a hard minutes limit against Indiana, he still doesn’t plan on giving him a huge workload. Embiid played 33 minutes in the Sixers’ win over the Bulls on Sunday and everyone will continue to keep a close eye on his all-important left knee.

“I don’t think I’m ever in a situation where we’re thinking about crazy minutes anyway,” Nurse said. “So I wouldn’t say that’s a limitation, but it’s just common sense.”