Preseason games should be taken with a grain of salt, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find clues. The Philadelphia 76ers have yet to show us they won’t stay true to their desired identity of “bully ball defense and smash mouth offense”.
Both teams were shorthanded, but the Sixers set the tone of the game from start to finish. The Sixers stifled the Pistons to the tune of 86 points on 32.6-percent shooting. The Sixers pulled down 19 more rebounds than the Pistons, while accumulating nine steals and 15 blocks.
The Sixers were without Ben Simmons, James Ennis, and Al Horford.