Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George believes his team is starting to turn a corner.
After dropping 15 of its first 20 games of the season, Philadelphia carries a renewed sense of optimism into a meeting with the host Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon.
George supplied a team-high 21 points to go along with nine assists as the Sixers topped the Orlando Magic 102-94 on Friday night. KJ Martin added 20 points off the bench while starters Tyrese Maxey and Guerschon Yabusele each went for 16 in a victory that has George feeling good about the direction Philadelphia is headed.
“There’s just a flow now,” George said. “There’s a flow that we can get to our plays, we can get to our spots, and everybody knows where they’re at on the floor. So I think we just had to get through a lot of games. This is a new group to start out — we just had to get some games under our belt to kind of iron out the wrinkles.
“Now we kind of know who we are.”
Identity has been something at the front of Chicago’s mind, too. The Bulls have been focused on shooting a high volume of 3-pointers, averaging 45.4 attempts from deep over their past 11 games.
Chicago went a stunning 21-for-50 (42.0 percent) from beyond the arc on Friday, but it still came up short in a 132-123 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
“You see who is in contention and doing things well and it’s a numbers game now. More people are shooting 3s, so you have to try to match that,” Bulls guard/forward Zach LaVine said. “There are more possessions, more people getting opportunities because the ball is being shared more. But some of it is predictable. Come down and shoot.
“I think this is our best way of competing.”
LaVine poured in a game-high 32 points on 12-of-22 shooting against Indiana., including 5 of 9 from distance. Coby White contributed 19 points and nine assists, and Ayo Dosunmu posted 15 points.
Poor defense has been the main concern for Chicago, which has given up at least 124 points in four of its past five games.
“The biggest difference for us at this point is teams are taking a lot more shots than we are per game and they are generating more layups than we are per game,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “We have got to find ways to eliminate the straight (wide-open) layups; those plays kill you.”
Philadelphia might not be all that hard to stop, though, as the 76ers entered Saturday with the second-fewest points per game in the NBA (105.0).
Sixers coach Nick Nurse knows that means Philadelphia is probably going to have to rely on its defense, and he’s starting to see improvement on that side of the ball.
“I just think they’re playing together, there’s good spirit, the energy’s good,” Nurse said. “The defense has certainly gotten a lot better. Our menu of what we can do defensively is getting bigger all the time.”
Sunday marks the first meeting of the season between the 76ers and Bulls.
–Field Level Media
