If you weren't able to catch a particular Sixers game, there's no better snapshot of what happened than Hoop Data's advanced box score.
It's easy to look at a basic box score from last night and say "The Sixers lost the turnover battle and the rebounding battle, thus lost the game". That statement would be relatively accurate, but the advanced box score digs deeper.
The first stat that stands out – as Mike alluded to in his recap – was the discrepancy at shot attempts at the rim for both teams. The Sixers attempted only 18 shots at the basket, compared to 33 for the Blazers – nearly double Philly's output.
The Sixers were able to keep it close by shooting an unusually high percentage on typically the lowest percentage shots in the game – long two pointers. As a team they took 26 shots from 16-23 feet – hitting 46 percent of them. That percentage will plummet in future contests, especially on a team void of pure jump shooters.
It should also come as no surprise that the Sixers only had 5 assists leading to dunks or layups, compared to 9 by the Blazers. Spencer Hawes was responsible for two of the five. The deft-passing big man was featured in Kate Fagan's latest Sixers piece.
Last night was game one of a long season, but the Sixers need to cut down the turnovers and attack the basket – typically two team strengths – for the W's to start piling up. Settling for long two pointers isn't going to cut it.