3 observations: Giannis Antetokounmpo rallies Bucks past Sixers

The Philadelphia 76ers entered Wednesday night feeling good about themselves. They had won six in a row and they were coming off a tough win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday. They even got off to a hot start on Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks as they built a 19-point lead.

Then, league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo went to work and the Bucks began knocking down shots to rally past the Sixers on the road 109-105 in overtime and ended Philadelphia’s 6-game winning streak. Antetokounmpo only had four points at halftime, but he had 28 in the second half on his way to 32 for the game with 15 rebounds and five assists.

Tobias Harris led Philadelphia with 19 points and nine rebounds, Danny Green had 18 points, Seth Curry had 10 before leaving with a sprained left ankle, Dwight Howard had 13 points and 15 rebounds, Shake Milton added 15 off the bench, Furkan Korkmaz had 11, and Ben Simmons had 13, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds.

Here are the three observations from this one:

Ball movement

The Sixers are one of those teams that really relies on the ball whipping around the perimeter in order to create open looks for their shooters and to get into a flow on offense. When the ball is moving, that is a sign that the offense is humming a bit. They had eight assists on 11 field goals in the first quarter and despite Milwaukee’s length forcing some turnovers, Philadelphia was able to get out to a double-digit lead early. In the third quarter, the Bucks made a run at them as they finally seemed to get into a groove, but with the way that Philadelphia was moving the ball and executing on offense, they could not really put a huge dent into the deficit. The Sixers were still able to carry a 9-point lead into the fourth. However, it disappeared a bit in the fourth and they did not execute as well. While the Bucks surged, the Sixers faded and it cost them in this one.

Good defensive scheme

Whenever Antetokounmpo touched the ball, the Sixers sent waves of defenders his way. There was never really a clean look for him to get a shot off. Every time he touched the ball, he was met with Simmons and then he would drive the lane and Tony Bradley would be there to get into his path. Milwaukee then tried posting him and that didn’t work either as he would get double-teamed immediately. Obviously, he was able to figure it out because that’s what great players do, but the defense overall was impressive. On top of that, the Bucks are one of the top offensive teams in the league averaging 117.6 points per 100 possessions which makes them fourth in the league in offensive rating per basketball-reference and the Sixers held them to 31 points at halftime which set the tone for the game. The Bucks did get into a groove in the third quarter, but that was to be expected being such a good offensive team. The Sixers did not lose this game defensively, they lost it on the offensive end where the execution lacked.

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Dwight Howard’s impact

It is clear that Howard is happy to have the fans back in the arena. The big man was feeding off their energy to start the game as he was having fun with the crowd on his way to having an impact on the floor early. He was finishing around the basket, he was attacking the glass, and he also had a blocked shot. There was also one instance where he set a screen and instead of rolling, he actually popped, and he knocked down the jumper. He was having a lot of fun in this one. There were a few moments where Howard probably should have just kept his mouth shut with the officials, but at the same time, he is just being a leader and sticking up for his guys in a situation where the officiating in the third quarter was not all that great. It seemed like Philadelphia lost its composure for a little bit and that was another reason why the game slipped away a bit.

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