Sixers Notes: Scrimmage action heating up

Andrew Bynum stood about 10 feet from a side basket during Thursday evening’s practice session at St. Joe’s Hagan Arena, seemingly attempting to see how high he could shoot the ball before it splashed through the net.

But the real action was behind the big fella on the main court where the Sixers wrapped up the third day of training camp with another high-intensity scrimmage.

This one ended with a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Nick Young to give his team the victory in the last 12-minute scrimmage.

Baskets were pretty tough to come by in the final 12 minutes with players missing open looks and throwing the ball away in transition. Undoubtedly that will be cleaned up by the time the exhibition season gets going.

“The defense is further along than the offense at this point, but that’s to be expected,” assistant coach Brian James said. “We love how competitive we are and we love the attitude of the team and the personality they’ve taken on. They’re pushing each other.

“Guys are playing really hard and picking things up quickly. And we’re playing well as a group.”

Maalik Wayns and Jrue Holiday stood out in the evening session, with both players dictating the action and penetrating to the hoop with relative ease. Spencer Hawes and Thad Young also performed well, along with Kwame Brown.

But aside from the usual suspects, rookie Arnett Moultrie was impressive on Thursday night. The first-round draft pick out of Mississippi State came with a reputation for rebounding and toughness and so far that has been his forte in camp.

Maybe more impressively, Moultrie played well even though he’s still battling an ankle injury he suffered during the pre-draft workouts in June.

“He’s not 100 percent yet, so once he gets a little bit tired he starts favoring that leg. But you can see what he does and he’s really going to help us,” James said. “He’s relentless on the boards and he’s a pretty good shooter from 15-feet in, and he’s picking up things very quickly in terms of the offense.”

The Sixers have one practice session on Friday before returning to two-a-days on Saturday. Following a day off on Sunday, the team gets ready for an interesting week in which they play two exhibition games. One will be in Orlando on Thursday and the other will be in Atlantic City on Saturday. 

Sixers forward Lavoy Allen and his girlfriend welcomed a baby boy on Thursday.