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There's a good chance a lot of you don't want to hear any more about the Sixers colossal beatdown over the Celtics and Evan Turner's career night. Unfortunately, I am physically unable to resist. I'm just so damn happy for the kid and feel the need to revisit this game again and again and again.
The advanced box score is up and it looks like -- yes, the Sixers kicked the crap out of them. I can safely report that. Elton Brand logged a hilarious 160 ORtg due to an 8-10 night with a hefty chunk of rebound percentages. Both Turner's TS% and eFG% are over 60, nice to see, and as expected his usage rate is rather high - but about on par with the usual BOSS line so I won't fault him there. A few more assists from now on though, k Ev?
The Sixers hauled in an catastrophical 37.2% of their own shots, while holding the C's to a 17.4% ORB%. Inserting Turner and his Mystery Problem into the starting lineup, as Doug Collins says, made a huge difference there:
"Evan Turner is our best rebounder. How many times did he rebound it and start a fastbreak. We are not a good defensive rebounding team, so it’s very important for him to go in there and clean up the boards. And really, when he plays some of his best offensive games is when he defensive rebounds the ball and turns to bring the ball up and attack in the open court."
The best word to describe the Jrue/Turner/Iguodala threesome (aside from tremendously sexy) is "dynamic", as jrb5094 put it last night. Regardless of who is the point guard (we'll have more on this later), all three of them are electric ball-handlers with the ability to bring in the rebound and take it the distance. What Turner did so excellently against Boston was mostly be aware of the team's deficiencies in the half-court. By making every rebound a fast break, he eliminated a lot of their weaknesses and against the old/slow/dead Celtics, ran them out of the building. Let's just hope those shots keep falling.
Check out the game highlights here. Watch them until you have it memorized. My favorite moment might be the Turner drive on Kevin Garnett at the :42 mark when he switches to his left hand and shields KG with his body. Great control there for a guy who has not been the best finisher this year. For more Turner-related analysis, check out Shaky Ankles for additional palette whetting.