The Detroit Pistons suffered their second loss of the season on Wednesday night at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers. This was a forgivable loss for the Jalen Duren-less Pistons against a fully healthy Sixers team. As always, the Pistons put up a solid fight, mounting an impressive comeback in the fourth quarter, only to come up short in the end.
There is no shame in losing to the 8-1 Sixers, especially considering that the Pistons already beat them earlier in the season. But there were a couple of concerning things about the loss that should scare Pistons fans about the prospects of facing the Sixers in the playoffs.
Pistons have a major schematic disadvantage against the Sixers
Philadelphia is a difficult team to match up against for most teams. They arguably have the most talented starting five in the NBA. With all five players able to shoot, dribble, and pass, the Sixers will have an offensive advantage against almost every team in the league.
Detroit was still able to slow down the Sixers' offense, largely in part because Ausar Thompson completely shut down Tyrese Maxey.
But Philly's advantage against the Pistons comes on the defensive side of the ball. The Pistons simply couldn't score against the Sixers for large portions of the game. Besides Duncan Robinson's red-hot shooting, there was nothing working for Detroit. The Pistons put up a 105.0 offensive rating, nowhere near good enough against an offense-first team like the Sixers.
A big reason why was the Pistons' inability to space the floor. Because the Pistons have at least two non-shooters on the floor at all times, the Sixers were able to keep Joel Embiid close to the basket. Because Paul Reed, Ausar Thompson, or Ron Holland don't need to be guarded outside the paint, the Sixers simply had Embiid wait around the rim. This helped them protect the rim and not let the Pistons get any offensive rebounds.
As a result, the Pistons had only four offensive rebounds in the game. They couldn't score efficiently when Embidd was on the floor.
The way to beat the Sixers is to get Embiid out on the perimeter. At this stage of his career, he lacks the conditioning and mobility to chase players out on the perimeter and then recover. We saw how much trouble the Knicks caused Embiid in the playoffs by having five-out spacing and Karl-Anthony Towns at center.
Unfortunately, the Pistons can't do that with their current personnel. Of course, Duren's return will help. Duren has the ability to score against Embiid, whether through pick-and-rolls or isolation. But he doesn't address Detroit's most significant weakness. There is still not enough shooting or spacing, and this is a problem against the Sixers.
The Pistons match up better against some of the other Eastern Conference teams. For now, the Sixers have proven to be a bad matchup for the Pistons if they are fully healthy. That is a big if, of course, when dealing with Embiid, but Detroit may still be better off trying to avoid the Sixers in the playoffs.
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