Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Bob Ford: Nothing's wrong with Sixers' Evan Turner

What's wrong with Evan Turner? Not much, if you ask the Boston Celtics, who got all of him they wanted Wednesday night in the Wells Fargo Center.

Evan Turner scored a career-high 26 points on Wednesday night against the Celtics. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Evan Turner scored a career-high 26 points on Wednesday night against the Celtics. (Alex Brandon/AP)Read more

What's wrong with Evan Turner?

Not much, if you ask the Boston Celtics, who got all of him they wanted Wednesday night in the Wells Fargo Center.

Turner, playing just his second game as a starter this season, more than doubled his season scoring average by the end of the first half, and played the kind of complete game one would expect from a player taken with the second pick in the draft.

He would finish with a career-high 26 points, but the way he played was more impressive than any numbers placed next to his name.

He was so active in the romping 103-71 win over Boston that the Celtics were on their heels from the beginning. He stepped up and made nice midrange jump shots, ran the break, and finished with authority, used his good handle to create space and attack the basket. Turner, as he shared the point guard position with Jrue Holiday, was everything the Sixers hoped he would be when he was drafted, and everything he has been only on occasion since joining the team.

"I don't worry. You have some good nights and you have some bad nights," Turner said. "As a pro, you understand that. Tonight was a good night."

What's wrong with Evan Turner?

At least until this game against the Celtics, there has been something wrong with Turner, according to longtime Daily News writer Stan Hochman. On WIP-FM (94.1) Wednesday morning, Hochman said he had information that Turner has a problem, something that would make his relative lack of playing time and relative lack of effectiveness understandable when it finally comes out.

On-court, off-court? Physical, mental, family-related? Animal, vegetable, mineral? Hochman, who has been among the most dependable journalists in this city, wouldn't say.

Before the game, Turner said he couldn't imagine what Hochman was referring to, and coach Doug Collins refuted the rumor so vehemently that it left little room for later backtracking.

Hochman issued an apology last night for saying what he did publicly, but his statement also didn't contain anything that could be construed as a retraction.

"I have felt for some time that Turner was taking an unfair beating in the media and I hinted that there was an undisclosed explanation for his inconsistent performances," Hochman wrote in the statement sent to the Daily News.

"That was unfair to Turner and to the Sixers organization and I want to apologize to all concerned," the statement continued. "Sixty-six games crammed into 123 days takes its toll on everyone. I will not reveal my source, nor the nature of what I was told, but it was wrong to say what I said."

So what's wrong with Evan Turner?

Is it the something that kept him out of the starting lineup until now, or the something that has been resolved and he can finally be himself? Or is it nothing? Ask the Celtics, and they'll choose the nothing.

That said, this game was a little bit of a setup. The Celtics had won five straight, but the last two in overtime, including a Tuesday night game in the Garden in which Kevin Garnett played 38 minutes, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce played 41, and Rajon Rondo played 45.

All this season, like every veteran NBA team, the Celtics have picked their spots as they look ahead to the postseason. The compressed schedule has given them the authority to take off a night now and then.

"We got a little bit of a break," Collins said. "They had an overtime game last night and their team's a little older. They had weary legs tonight, but we took advantage of it. We did what we had to do."

They did it with Turner handling the ball a good deal of the time, and with Holiday running off screens when the two were on the court together. Collins said this will be the system from now on, with Turner and Holiday sharing the point guard role.

"Evan's a point guard. At the end of the day, he's a point guard," Collins said. "People may ask, 'What took you so long?' Well, when you're 20-9, you don't change things."

Losing eight out of 10 can alter that, however, and the philosophy of how this team is constructed looks as if it has been altered drastically. Making this kind of switch in the middle of a season - and in the middle of a season in which there is little practice time to implement it fully - is risky, but Collins obviously felt he had no choice.

"I'm just trying to figure it out. It isn't easy," Collins said. "But it's always easy to coach someone else's team. Call in on the radio and talk and that's good stuff."

What's wrong with Evan Turner?

Maybe he's a point guard who has been playing without the basketball. Maybe nothing more.

"It's my natural position, to tell the truth," Turner said. "I always feel more comfortable with the ball in my hands."

He had it last night, and he took it to the Boston Celtics, and they didn't have to like what happened next, but they couldn't stop it, either. For one night, for one game, and perhaps for the future, the answer to the question was that there is nothing at all wrong with Evan Turner.