The Nuggets and Sixers split the four factors, which comes as no surprise since the game came down to the wire. The Sixers rarely out-offensive rebound their opponents, when they accomplished easily last night. They also rarely have a higher free throw rate, and last night was no different. The Sixers are 22nd in the NBA in free throw rate through 14 games – that's a number I'd like to see increase, especially with guards who are supposed to be attacking the rim in Lou, Jrue, Evan and Andre.
The Sixers only have two players average four or more free throw attempts per game. The four players who split the front court dutues (Elton Brand, Spencer Hawes, Thaddeus Young and Nikola Vucevic) average a combined 5.7 free throws per game. That's unacceptable. The Sixers are going to have to get more production from their big men, both at the line and in the paint.
The other stat we like to look at in these advanced box scores is shot attempts at the rim. The Nuggets attempted 25 to the Sixers 21, which isn't so bad. However; the Sixers attempted a mind-boggling 41 (!) shots from 16-23 feet, compared to only 20 from the Nuggets. Long twos are, by far, the most inefficient shot in basketball and more than 40% of the Sixers attempts were of that variety. Jrue was 2-9, Turner was 3-8, Thad was 4-8, Brand was 2-7 and Iguodala was 1-6 – way too many long twos guys.
I hate to keep bashing Jrue, but he has to attack the rim. He had one attempt at the basket last night and only two free throws. On the bright side, Evan Turner was 3-3 at the rim, attempted five free throws and had three And1s.
Andre Iguodala racked up an impressive five assists that led to dunks or layups for his teammates, but Andre Miller led the game with seven (!). That's an absurd number for one game. Last night was basically Andre Miller saying "anything you can do, I can do better" to the entire Sixers team. Tom Moore also informed us via Twitter that Miller whispered Iguodala's free throw percentage in Dre's ear before his clutch free throw attempts. #AndreMillerSwag.