During their three days of practice between games, the 76ers spent a great deal of time working on offensive spacing. The team went so far as to tape five X's at each of the floor to indicate where they'd like the players to go when Elton Brand has the ball on the low or mid-post.
Following a 10-point loss to the Magic in which Brand attempted eight shots and Andre Miller 24, the Sixers knew for sure that they had to address an offense that was totally out of whack. In only winning two of their first six games, the Sixers had real trouble in their half-court offense. The lack of ball movement and player movement resulted in too many turnovers and not enough made jumpers.
Brand's presence is limiting Andre Iguodala's touches and also giving Iguodala and others shots in different spots than they got them a year ago.
"There's a difference playing with a low-post guy who demands a lot of attention," Iguodala said. "We're just in the works. I think everybody's adjusting."
"A lot of the offense is going through (Brand)," said Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks. "That's a little different as opposed to last year, when a lot of offense went through Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams. Now a lot of the offense is going through Elton and we're playing out of that. We all didn't think it would happen overnight, but we just hoped that it would come sooner."
The offense was stagnant again for three-quarters of Tuesday's 93-80 home loss to the Jazz. The Sixers were outscored by 29 points in all but the third quarter, when they forced turnovers and got out on the break en route to a 30-14 advantage.
"We did get the ball in Elton's hands a little bit more, but we scored the ball in the open court, not in our half-court offense," Cheeks said.
JAZZ 93, SIXERS 80: The Sixers didn't take care of the ball, allowed Utah to hurt them with its methodical, layup-producing offense and were out-hustled and out-worked. The Jazz's bench had more field goals (16) than the host Sixers had points (12), and Utah's Ronnie Brewer (16) outscored the Sixers (13) in the fourth quarter.
