During his three-year tenure as Sixers’ head coach, Brett Brown has routinely broken down and analyzed the team’s progress by viewing the schedule in “clumps” of three. The first clump runs from opening night through Christmas. The second one stretches from Christmas to the All-Star Game break. The third and final clump goes from the All-Star break to the end of the season.

With nine games remaining in this current middle clump of the campaign, the Sixers have made defensive headway. In 31 games prior to Christmas, the Sixers were surrendering 104.7 points per game, the seventh-highest average in the NBA. Also, the club’s defensive rating of 105.4 (points allowed per 100 possessions) was third-to-last in the league.

Slowly but surely, with Brown relentlessly prioritizing improvement on the defensive end, the Sixers have made gains. While the Sixers have actually given up 0.3 more points per game in their 13 post-holiday appearances, that measure does not fully reflect the story. Of note is that the Sixers’ defensive rating amidst this same stretch has dropped to 102.8, a figure that ranks 12th among all NBA teams during this same period of time.

Even more telling of the Sixers’ recent defensive strides, however, is their performance in several key statistical areas dating back to January 10th, when they hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers at The Center. Even though the Sixers endured a 95-85 loss that day, Cleveland saw its streak of three straight 120-point games come to an end. The Cavs also shot 39.0 percent from the field, after having shot at least 50.0 percent in three consecutive outings.

From that night forward , the Sixers have continued to build defensive momentum. Revisiting that January 10th date, only three teams in the NBA have posted a lower defensive rating than the Sixers’ 97.3. Those teams are the San Antonio Spurs, Atlanta Hawks, and Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively, which have a combined record of 94-35.

Furthermore, since January 10th, the Sixers have permitted opponents to hit just 41.7 percent of their field goal attempts, good for fourth-best in the league. Over the past 10 days, the Sixers also sit fourth in the NBA in opponent three-point field goals allowed (6.6), and three-point field goal percentage (28.7). These results have stemmed from Brown and his coaching staff streamlining schemes.

“I just feel like they’re starting to understand it themselves what their role is,” said Brown Wednesday, when the Sixers were in Orlando preparing to face the Magic. “The simplicity of everything we’re doing is starting to pay dividends. We saw the same thing last year, where we really started to come into our own, where you just felt purposeful, both on offense and on defense. But I feel defensively, and the rhythm of what we’re doing is just becoming clearer and more defined.”

The Sixers spotted the Magic 87 points. It was the second-lowest total they’ve yielded this season. On top of that, Orlando managed to sink four three-pointers, its fourth-lowest total of the year.

