WASHINGTON — Call it a learning experience.
That’s the way Jahlil Okafor, the Sixers’ franchise player, is looking at his NBA preseason debut on Tuesday night at the Verizon Center. Though the center and odds-on favorite for the Rookie of the Year award played a solid first half, scoring 12 points and hitting his first five shots, the pro game opened his eyes quite a bit.
Forget about the 129-95 defeat to the Wizards in the opener (see Instant Replay). That’s beside the point. If there was one big takeaway in Okafor’s debut, it was how much an NBA player needs to be engaged for 48 minutes.
“We have to be focused for 48 minutes,” Okafor said. “We can compete with those guys, but we have to be focused. Mentally, we have to come out in second half strong.”
Mentally, the Sixers may have checked out at halftime after turning a 15-point deficit into just two at the break. Before the Sixers knew what hit them, the Wizards went on an 18-4 run to open the second half.
There was no recovery from that for the Sixers since Okafor logged just five minutes in the third quarter and just 17 in his debut, hitting 6 of his 10 shots to go with two rebounds, two blocks and four fouls.
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“I got comfortable within the offense and we played pretty well, but at halftime we got stagnant,” Okafor said. “Before we knew we were down by double digits. We can compete at a high level when we’re all focused and engaged, but we’re a young team and it was a learning experience.”
It was a learning experience on many fronts, namely, the dynamic the Sixers create when Okafor is teamed with Nerlens Noel on the floor. With two big men patrolling the paint, the Sixers found a few scoring opportunities for other players like Robert Covington and Isaiah Canaan, who went 5 for 9 on three-pointers.
Defensively, the pair worked well together, too, though it will still be a bit of a learning process for Noel to play a little farther from the rim on defense.
“Nerlens, defensively, wasn’t used to being that second side defender,” head coach Brett Brown said. “He had one play in the first half when a guy drove and he collapsed and just swatted it. When you’re a primary defender guarding the rim, the world comes to you. Now, when you take him away from the rim and expect him to make plays at the rim, he has to navigate that a little bit differently.”
Noel said he liked playing the power forward spot on defense because it gives him a chance to play a little more help-side defense.
As far as the team defense, that definitely needs some work. The Wizards hit 15 for 26 on three-pointers and scored 28 points off 24 Sixers turnovers. After spending the week of training camp at Stockton University focusing on defense — namely, transition defense — the 129 points allowed was pretty disappointing.
“We spent the entire week talking about transition defense and you wouldn’t have thought that,” Brown said. “Some of it is born out of us missing threes and some of it is born out of our turning the ball over, but I thought our transition defense was poor, and a poor effort coming out of camp — that’s where I get the most disappointed.”
The poor showing on transition defense was alarming across the board, even to Noel and Okafor.
“I thought some of the guys still have to get more experience,” Noel said. “We have gone through practices, but games are a whole different thing. You got nerves and some of these young guys just need to stay awake. I think we’ll be alright the next game.”
The next game is next Thursday against the defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James. That will be another test for the Sixers’ transition defense and another showcase for Noel and Okafor.
“I think you can see it obviously how they can co-exist,” Brown said about his big men.