In the wake of a once again monstrous Joel Embiid, the Sixers won against the Pelicans on Monday night, chaining a 10th success in a row at home. A success which made it possible to see at work during the match a five composed in particular of three backs.
Since the arrival of De’Anthony Melton, the question has often arisen: should we align three backs in Philadelphia? D’Anthony Melton’s versatility and defense combined with James Harden’s game acumen and Tyrese Maxey’s speed/shooting combo made him a viable option. Without forgetting the joker Shake Milton.
Except that Doc Rivers hadn’t really had the opportunity to put these three elements together, due to injuries to James Harden and Tyrese Maxey. Finally, the arrival of the Pelicans made it possible to test this configuration. As proof, PJ Tucker only played 18 minutes against New Orleans, giving way to this experience with three backs.
“It’s a lineup that we can use because it allows us to increase the pace” explained Doc Rivers. “We appreciate it more when Joel is on the pitch because it gives us three fullbacks who can play pick-and-roll with Jo. And if they help, then we have two fast fullbacks who can create something.”
An effective system offensively
Recently, Shake Milton had been used alongside James Harden and De’Anthony Melton, and it had been effective with a +17.7 point differential per 100 possessions, albeit in limited minutes.
The return of Tyrese Maxey offers other solutions, as we have seen against the Pelicans. With Herb Jones not letting go of James Harden, the Sixers found themselves in a scenario where CJ McCollum switched to defense on Joel Embiid. This gave James Harden the luxury of serving as his pivot for the height and weight advantage, but also to be able to serve against Tyrese Maxey (41% from 3-pointers this season) or De’Anthony Melton (40 %). A nice variety of offensive options for this three-back system at the Sixers.
“With this system, we have to do a very good job on the rebound. I think tonight we did it” insists James Harden. “The more opportunities we have to fine-tune this setup, the better off it will be for us.”
If anyone benefits from this new three-back setup, it’s Joel Embiid. The Sixers All-Star center went on a rampage against the Pelicans with 42 points and 11 rebounds.
“They will definitely make my life easier” rejoiced the fulcrum. “You have three very good shooters, a great creator with James and defensively, everyone knows what to do.”
Defensively, there were however some collective and individual failures in the last five minutes, in particular from Tyrese Maxey who left Trey Murphy open at 3-points. Doc Rivers blamed it on a lack of pace after missing several weeks. Nevertheless, the weak point of a formula with three “little ones” will remain defense and rebounding, but Doc Rivers will always have PJ Tucker in reserve.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Joel Embiid | 28 | 35.5 | 53.2 | 34.1 | 85.3 | 1.8 | 8.0 | 9.8 | 4.6 | 3.9 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 3.4 | 33.5 |
| James Harden | 21 | 38.1 | 43.7 | 37.2 | 88.0 | 0.4 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 11.0 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 22.1 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 17 | 34.8 | 45.5 | 40.9 | 73.1 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 21.4 |
| Tobias Harris | 33 | 34.3 | 49.6 | 39.2 | 86.7 | 1.0 | 5.2 | 6.2 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 16.4 |
| De’anthony Melton | 33 | 30.2 | 43.1 | 39.7 | 71.0 | 1.1 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 3.2 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 12.0 |
| Shake Milton | 32 | 24.1 | 50.6 | 37.0 | 83.1 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 3.2 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 10.5 |
| George Niang | 34 | 20.4 | 43.8 | 40.7 | 91.7 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 9.4 |
| Daniel House | 29 | 17.4 | 48.5 | 33.9 | 73.5 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 5.0 |
| Montrezl Harrell | 32 | 11.5 | 53.3 | 0.0 | 71.2 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 4.9 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | 20 | 11.5 | 39.1 | 32.4 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 4.2 |
| pj tucker | 35 | 27.8 | 43.1 | 39.7 | 83.3 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 4.3 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 3.5 |
| Saben Lee | 2 | 5.1 | 75.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Paul Reed, Jr. | 30 | 9.5 | 53.6 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 3.1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 2.7 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 32 | 11.4 | 43.5 | 35.0 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 2.4 |
| Jaden Springer | 5 | 3.1 | 42.9 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.4 |
| Michael Foster, Jr. | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Julian Champagnie | 2 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
