Sixers looking to improve their rebounding amid frontcourt injuries: ‘We gotta hit, box out, try to fight’
The Sixers have let that area slip early in games before course correcting as the night goes on. It has contributed to some of their early deficits.
Just over five minutes into the 76ers’ loss to the Pistons on Sunday, a column of the score sheet remained filled with zeroes: defensive rebounding.
The Sixers were without a resting Joel Embiid, and coach Nick Nurse started a small lineup that featured LeBron James playing center, but that was still a jolt to see. Before Adem Bona secured the first defensive rebound at the 6-minute, 56-second mark, the Pistons had opened a 20-5 lead on the back of second-chance opportunities, and the Sixers were playing catch-up all night.
After the game, a joking LeBron described what the Sixers had to do better, paraphrasing a famous description of rebounding from a former teammate of his who was on the Pistons bench.
“In the great words of Taurean Prince, who I saw tonight on the bench, a good friend of mine,” James said: “‘The ball is in the air, and you grab the ball, and that’s a rebound.’”
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There’s obviously a little more to it, especially when the Sixers play in these smaller lineups while multiple frontcourt players — like Dominick Barlow, Tacko Fall and Jabari Walker — are attempting to make it back from injuries.
Even on opening night, the Sixers allowed former teammate Andre Drummond to grab six offensive rebounds in the first half, and that was with Embiid in the lineup.
The Sixers have done a good job course correcting their rebounding issues midgame, and that has enabled them to come back from early deficits. Keeping that emphasis on 48 minutes of sound rebounding was something coach Nick Nurse discussed in practice before Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers.
“If you want to look at the bright side, a lot of these things are happening because we’re forcing them into really tough shots, late shot-clock things, all that kind of stuff,” Nurse said. “But we just got to finish it, and our guys got to understand that … it’s everybody, man. Everybody’s got to be on a chase-the-ball alert once we’ve made them miss.”
Through four games, the Sixers are 16th in defensive rebounding percentage, a metric that tracks how many of every possible defensive rebound a team grabs. There’s a different mindset that comes with rebounding out of smaller lineups, especially if a team has a renowned offensive rebounder, like a Drummond or Boston’s Mitchell Robinson. Recently, Walker (who did individual work Tuesday as he’s recovering from left knee soreness) said when he knows he might be playing center against a team with a good rebounder, it might cause him to lose a little sleep.
“There’s a handful of [centers] in the league where it’s like you think about it the night before,” Walker said. “Like, ‘Oh, damn, I got to go against him and I got to hit him early.’ ”
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Rebounding in those situations might require getting two players to compete with an opposing team’s center. But overall, the Sixers have to be ready for teams to attack the offensive glass, especially as they await reinforcements in the frontcourt.
“Teams are sending lots of crashers against us, so we’ll get challenged,” Nurse said. “We gotta fix that, and we should be able to do that. We show the clips, we drill it. We got to take it to the floor now, and we got to do it from the start of games.”
Guard Tyrese Maxey said “if some of our tall guys come back, that would be great” as one way the rebounding could improve. The Sixers also missed the rebounding of VJ Edgecombe on Sunday, as he sat out because of an abdominal contusion. Edgecombe had 13 rebounds against the Bucks. He practiced in full Tuesday, as did Fall. Perhaps some help is coming on the glass. In the meantime, the Sixers said they are being mindful to not let this problem persist.
“We just gotta hit, man,” Maxey said. “We gotta hit, box out, try to fight, man. We gotta figure it out. The ball comes off the rim. Got to do whatever we gotta do to get that rebound.”
Beat reporters Gina Mizell and Chris Hine break down their most intriguing quotes from LeBron James and Tyrese Maxey during the preseason, along with what they most hope to learn about this revamped roster during the first month of the season. Watch here.
Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Sixers Extra podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
