Sixers Likes and Dislikes: Robert Covington's defense, Ben Simmons' finishing and brief glimpses from Markelle Fultz
New York TimesThrough the early part of the Sixers season a number of trends have started to pop up, from the team’s struggles to get on the same page with its switch-heavy scheme — leading to unexpected struggles on that end of the court — to dominance from Joel Embiid and our first glimpses of Markelle Fultz’s return to action. We return to this week’s Likes and Dislikes column to take a look at a couple of other early season trends, including Fultz finally attacking the rim in transition, Robert Covington’s continued stellar defensive play and Ben Simmons’ unexpected struggles at the rim. He was the primary defender tasked with slowing down Walker, who had been averaging 30.8 points per game while shooting 49.2 percent from the field and 45.3 percent from 3-point range up to that point, and Covington held Walker to just 6-for-15 shooting in the Sixers’ win, including 2-for-9 from 3-point range, when defending him. In truth, if Fultz develops into the defender head coach Brett Brown and the front office envisioned when they drafted him, this wouldn’t be Covington’s primary defensive responsibility. In fact, 60.5 percent of Simmons’ makes at the rim last year came in the first 9 seconds of the shot clock, with nearly 93 percent coming in the first 17 seconds.
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