Georges Niang must have struck a nerve.
He’d embraced the challenge of a trash talk-stuffed 1-on-1 session after practice Thursday with Joel Embiid and P.J. Tucker. But now he had a 7-foot MVP runner-up (playfully) chasing after him. Niang sprinted out of the gym through a side door and opted to speak with reporters.
“I think every guy in the NBA has competitive juices,” he said. “You just want to keep going hard as long as possible. I think a lot of us grew up playing 1-on-1, and it’s just fun to get out there. I think every guy loves to work on their craft. … It’s like on the playground; I think all of us grew up like that — I don’t know about the 18, 19-year-olds that are in the league now — but that’s just fun, enjoyable, competitive 1-on-1.”
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Embiid had waved Niang over to join himself and Tucker as the 29-year-old forward wrapped up a decidedly less old-school post-practice activity.
Niang put up catch-and-shoot three-pointers. He’s been excellent as usual at those looks this season, making 45.9 percent of his team-high 4.9 catch-and-shoot triples per game. Niang’s jumpers Thursday were all tracked by Noah Basketball, a product widely used across the NBA that provides feedback on arc, depth and other aspects of players’ shots. Assistant coach Eric Hughes pulled out a laptop and looked things over with Niang before he went down to see Tucker and Embiid.
Niang offered an honest opinion on Noah Basketball. He doesn’t seem likely to be a spokesperson anytime soon.
“I’m not really a big numbers guy,” he said. “I’m more (about) feel, so sometimes it’ll drive me nuts. If you see, it says, ‘Perfect shot.’ I’ll start aiming and try to shoot a perfect shot, and I end up missing more than I end up making. So it kind of bothers me, but it’s helpful to say the least.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the gym, Tobias Harris’ eyewear was striking as he took catch-and-shoot jumpers. Harris wore sunglasses to simulate a hand in his face.
While Niang’s best skill is shooting, the 1-on-1 games appear naturally more up his alley than the high-tech jumpers.
“Obviously I’m going to give myself the crown because I don’t think anybody’s better than me, but (Embiid and Tucker) are very elite trash talkers for sure,” he said.
NBA
Niang and the Sixers sounded optimistic Thursday that they’re starting to truly gel in games. They enter Friday night’s matchup against the Warriors (with Stephen Curry out because of a shoulder injury) on a three-game winning streak, fresh off decisive victories over the Hornets and Kings.
“I like where we're headed,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “I love what we’ve been doing on both ends of the floor. Defensively, we’re really locking in, taking people out of their first option a lot, loading to the ball. Offensively, the floor’s open and we’re playing with great pace overall.”
Asked specifically about the Sixers’ transition defense, which was deeply problematic early in the season, Niang again gave a candid response.
“We’ve had times where we’ve really done a good job of emphasizing within our team … to get back in transition, stop the break,” he said. “And then we’ve had some times — I’m guilty of it — of celebrating or doing the victory lap back. We’ve got to make it a priority to sprint back every time, put our head down for the first few steps to get back in position to build a wall to stop transition, just so we can make them score against our half-court defense, which has been — I don’t know the numbers — but I think pretty effective.”
Indeed, the Sixers have allowed just 93.1 points per 100 half-court plays, according to Cleaning the Glass. That ranks fourth in the NBA.
We assume Niang would prefer some more 1-on-1 and trash-talking opportunities over perusing those numbers.