Sixers coach Brett Brown had perhaps his best coaching game of the season Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Two things from the game really stood out.
He was willing to make a major change to the starting lineup, and he force-fed the Clippers a heavy dose of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons in the paint.
In order to accomplish the goal of catering the offense to the strengths of Embiid and Simmons, a hard choice had to be made regarding the Sixers big free agent splash this past offseason.
Changing up the starting lineup
Moving Al Horford to the bench couldn’t have been the easiest decision for Brown.
Horford hasn’t come of the bench in a regular season game since 2007, when he was a member of the Atlanta Hawks.
Alongside moving Horford to the bench, Brown moved Tobias Harris to power forward and inserted Furkan Korkmaz into the starting lineup as the small forward.
If Brown decides to keep Horford on the bench to start games following all-star weekend, he can rotate Korkmaz and Matisse Thybulle as starters until one seizes the opportunity.
Plus, it allows Harris to play more at the four spot. It’s his most natural position and he looked comfortable in that role Tuesday night.
Dominate the Paint
Joel Embiid is at his best when he aggressively gets in the paint and sets up with low positioning.
Without Horford’s presence in the paint, it allows for Embiid to have more room and less defenders in the area to have to deal with.
In addition, it gives Simmons more options in the half court offense. If the offense stalls during a possession, it easy to just dump the ball to Embiid in the paint and let him create his own shot.
It was especially smart to try this approach against the Clippers, a team that doesn’t have a big body to handle Embiid.
The Sixers need to focus on creating space for Simmons and Embiid. Playing to their strengths is their best chance of winning moving forward.
Brown gets most of the blame when things go wrong, so it’s only fair to give him some praise when he makes the right moves.
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