Brett Brown on Sixers’ fourth-quarter defense: ‘It needs to be fixed, and fixed it will be.’
During the fourth quarters of their two seeding games, the Sixers have been outscored, 89-67. Brett Brown: "I think it’s not anything that we are, or believe in or talk about."
The 76ers weren’t deluding themselves. Despite a 132-130 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Monday, they have had two forgettable fourth quarters during their two NBA seeding games in Kissimmee, Fla.
What salvaged Monday’s win was Shake Milton’s three-pointer with 7.2 seconds left that gave the Sixers a 131-130 lead.
True, the Sixers showed some late fight after trailing by 129-125 when DeMar DeRozan hit a pull-up 13-footer with 1 minute, 3 seconds left. Despite the ensuing comeback, the Sixers defense came apart in the fourth quarter for the second straight game.
In Saturday’s 127-121 loss to Indiana, the Sixers were outscored in the fourth quarter, 46-34. On Monday, San Antonio outscored the Sixers, 43-33, in the final period, shooting 15-for-21 from the field, 3-for-6 from three-point range and 10-for-12 from the foul line.
In the two fourth quarters, Indiana and San Antonio shot 31-for-41 (75.6%) from the field, 9-for-13 from three-point range (69.2%) and 18-for-22 from the free-throw line (81.8%).
The Sixers were happy to get their first win in the restart but realistic that they are living dangerously with those fourth-quarter defensive lapses.
“I think it stinks,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said on a postgame Zoom interview on the last two fourth quarters defensively. “I think it’s not anything that we are, or believe in or talk about.
“We were very lucky to win tonight,” he said.
During the Indiana game, T.J. Warren scored 19 of his 53 points in the fourth quarter. The leaders on Monday were San Antonio’s Derrick White and DeRozan, who both had 13 fourth-quarter points. They combined to go 8-for-9 from the field, with White hitting all three of his threes.
It didn’t help that Ben Simmons played only 4:57 of the fourth quarter against the Spurs before fouling out. Then again, Simmons struggled defensively, especially against DeRozan. According to NBA.com, DeRozan scored 13 points and was 5-for-8 from the field and 1-for-2 from three-point range with Simmons guarding him.
Center Joel Embiid, who had 8 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, was frustrated by the defensive effort.
“The last few games, we haven’t been able to keep our man in front of us,” Embiid said. “So we have to do a better job in that situation and I have to do a better job protecting the rim.”
The Sixers had just one blocked shot in the fourth quarter and were also outrebounded 10-6.
Both Indiana and San Antonio were undermanned because of injuries. These last two games and especially the fourth quarters show that the Sixers have to play with more urgency, especially in the final 12 minutes. They can’t just play in spurts, relying on their talent to bail them out.
“We have to have an immediate paradigm shift and admittance that we can’t afford to pick and choose, and in the last two games we have done that,” Brown said.
The Sixers had off from practice Tuesday, and they will face the Washington Wizards at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
“It needs to be fixed,” Brown said about the fourth-quarter defense. “And fixed it will be.”