Sixers-Pistons best and worst awards: Tobias Harris’ dominant quarter, Pistons’ horrid foul shooting, Ben Simmons’ thievery
Tobias Harris took over the game when his team needed someone to step up. The 6-foot-9 forward scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the third quarter.
DETROIT – Here is my look at some of the best and worst performances from the 76ers’ 117-111 victory over Detroit Pistons Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena.
Best performance: It would have been criminal to give it to anyone other than Tobias Harris. The Sixer took over the game when his team needed someone to step up. The 6-foot-9 forward scored 16 of his 29 points in the third quarter. The fringe All-Star finished the game with 10-for-15 shooting – including making 4 of 6 three-pointers – to go with seven rebounds, two steals and three turnovers.
Worst performance: This was a tough one. But I had to give this to Furkan Korkmaz. The Sixers reserve guard failed to duplicate his solid play in Wednesday night’s season-opener. A liability, Korkmaz didn’t see any second-half action.
Best defensive performance: This award goes to Ben Simmons. The Sixers point guard finished with a career-high seven steals. One of them led to an eventual three-point play by Al Horford. Simmons made the late steal, his sixth, and fed Horford. The post player scored while being fouled and made the following foul shot to give the Sixers a 106-97 lead with 3 minutes, 46 seconds remaining.
Worst statistic: As bad as the combined turnovers (55) were, I had to give it the Pistons foul shooting. Detroit missed 15 of 36 foul shots to shoot 58.3 percent from the line.
Best statistic: This goes to Sixers reserve power forward Mike Scott making 5 of 6 three-pointers. Those five threes accounted for all of his made baskets.
Worst of the Worst: I had to give this to the Sixers’ first-half performance. They were a team that desperately missed Joel Embiid, who was sidelined with a sprained right ankle. The Sixers were stagnant on offense, looked lost and made just 4 of 17 three-pointers. Things actually remained that way until coach Brett Brown called a timeout with them trailing by 13 points with 8:47 left in the third quarter.