Quentin Grimes hit a three in the final moments of the game to push the Sixers to a hard-fought 125-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets. The Sixers are now 2-0 for the first time since 2020-21, when they ultimately finished as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Here’s what I saw.
A wild night for the backcourt
VJ Edgecombe managed to steal all the headlines from Tyrese Maxey in the opener despite the young vet dropping a 40-ball on the Celtics to open the year. The elder statesman in the backcourt did his best to avoid that in the home opener, going on a rampage in the first quarter of this one.
It’s tough to keep up with Maxey when he is shooting the cover off the ball, but I’ve also been impressed with Maxey’s use of his devastating speed, which has felt more powerful and purposeful to start this season. Philadelphia has made it a priority to run him off-ball and get him shot attempts on the move, and his early catch-and-shoot makes are turning into monster runs for Maxey as a pull-up shooter.
Maxey was Philadelphia’s best (and essentially only) option as the game came down to the final eight minutes or so, and he got things done the old-fashioned way, forcing the Hornets to foul him by initiating contact (legally) with his shoulder. His repeated trips to the free-throw line slowly allowed the Sixers to climb back into this game despite a pretty poor middle stretch for their lead guard, with Maxey doing just enough to help them survive.
In the other starting backcourt spot, Edgecombe was nowhere close to record-breaking scorer mode against Charlotte with Embiid and Maxey both cooking early, and I would categorize this as a “good rookie” game, but not a good one overall. The talent that got Edgecombe drafted No. 3 overall flashed at the same rate as reminders that he is a 20-year-old going through his first NBA season.
On the negative side of the ledger, Edgecombe was too forceful with his midrange attempts, defaulting to tough pull-ups and runners at times when he had decent passing options to turn to. His aggressiveness on the defensive end led to a few different highlight plays, but he ended the first half on the bench with three fouls, struggling to find the balance between playing hard and being overzealous.
Speaking of, he had one of the funniest shot attempts of the season so far in the third quarter, stumbling into the lane before basically throwing the ball over the backboard. Old concerns about his pre-draft tape came roaring to the forefront in game two. His handle, often a question during the draft process, showed up a lot more in this game, with Charlotte using pressure defense to frazzle him. His three-point volume fell back to more reasonable levels after a high-volume night against the Celtics, so his ineffectiveness inside the arc wasn’t made up for elsewhere.
(There were still plenty of good things for Edgecombe in this one, despite the poor shooting outing and defensive miscues. He is a relentless ball of energy, flashing through space as a cutter and passing-lane thief when he senses an opportunity will only come if he gets on his proverbial bike. Edgecombe made some nice combination plays with Maxey in both halves, and he was a catalyst for their transition attack as a passer, hitting long, hit-ahead passes to streaking teammates. As his offensive role fluctuates, Edgecombe needs to lock in on the little things to help Philadelphia win while he finds his long-term role as a scorer. 15 points, six rebounds, and eight assists in game two of your career is nothing to sneeze at.)
With Edgecombe riding the roller coaster and Maxey in need of some help, it was up to Quentin Grimes to serve as the hero who brought them home. After a brutal start and strong close against Boston, Quentin Grimes went in reverse order against Charlotte: Grimes was a blistering 6/7 from the field and 4/5 from downtown at halftime in their home opener, burning the nets down primarily as a pull-up shooter. And then halftime hit, and he was skunked for the first 11+ minutes of the second half.
But with the game on the line and the Sixers hoping to complete a hard-fought comeback, Grimes showed the confidence and touch he needed to can the most important shot of the game, a monster three to put Philadelphia in front for good:
It doesn’t have to be perfect to be good enough. Grimes is not a man who lacks confidence, and he needed every bit of his to see out the victory.
Is a backup big battle on the way?
If the Sixers end up looking like a team capable of a deep playoff run by the trade deadline, I would not be shocked to see the Sixers look for a veteran center as their minute-eating option (and spot starter) behind Joel Embiid. The Adem Bona experience is fun enough at the high end, but he’s a play-to-play adventure who isn’t good at a lot of the things you need out of your big man.
Bona’s athleticism and shot-blocking prowess end up working against him a fair amount, because his desire to contest everything often leaves his man running free for offensive rebounds and putbacks on the backside of the rim. Playing the cat-and-mouse game in pick-and-roll is extraordinarily hard at this level, and Bona too often hyperfocuses on the ball with no discretion for what is behind him. His hands are also nowhere near sure enough, either as a pass-catcher on the interior or a play-finisher on the glass. Combine that with the instinctual concerns above, and he has some real problems to work through.
It was under this logic that Nick Nurse ultimately opted to turn to Andre Drummond late in the third quarter, apparently unenthused with Bona’s play. Whether or not you are a believer in present-day Drummond, his size on the interior went a long way in helping to stabilize the Sixers as they were trying to make their comeback bid. No one needs to tell this fanbase how important rebounding is — Moses Malone was the man who ultimately pushed them to their last title — but it had been a while since Drummond had been able to swing a game almost exclusively through glass-cleaning.
The longer Nurse left him in the game, the more Drummond grew in stature, bringing the crowd to their feet with an offensive rebound and an-and-one finish off of a missed free throw from Maxey. The hits kept coming and coming, as Drummond seemingly ended (or extended) a limitless number of possessions coming down the stretch of this game. His endurance may have been the most impressive thing, with the veteran backup playing the entirety of the fourth quarter after being a rotation afterthought coming into the year.
It may still be Bona’s job to lose, but if nothing else, it’ll be good for the younger man if the vet pushes him to play better. Sometimes, the job is as simple as “big man grabs ball,” as Drummond proved during an awesome closing stretch against Charlotte.
A solid follow-up for Embiid
Does any player in the league go through a more regular it’s over/we’re back cycle than Joel Embiid? He was wildly off the pace of Philadelphia’s opening game against the Boston Celtics, only to come out firing in their first home game of the year. Perhaps the notoriously slow starter was, well, starting slow.
Philadelphia’s desire to turn him into a true pick-and-pop weapon is not exactly a big secret, and on Saturday night, Embiid got to work early from downtown, building some momentum from deep before pivoting into his more typical face-up work. After an opener with zero paint shots three days prior, Embiid put rookie center Ryan Kalkbrenner on the bench with two fouls in less than four minutes of action. He was a more active driver and cutter by a lot, and he was clearly feeling a bit more ready for NBA speed after the Boston opener. When Nick Nurse pulled him in the third quarter, mindful of his center’s minutes limit, Embiid showed some visible frustration at having to sit down, which I take as a positive in the circumstances.
Where I still haven’t seen enough mobility from Embiid is on the defensive end, and I would argue he needs it more there for this team to have any chance of playoff success. For roughly the first quarter-and-a-half, Embiid barely left the floor to contest shots around the rim, and being near enough to the rim to contest a shot would have been an upgrade on many possessions. He did ultimately put some good possessions on tape, including a great contest late in the second quarter, though I think the tape will show more bad than good there.
Other notes
— Dominick Barlow left the game at halftime and was done for the night with an elbow laceration. Will have to monitor that for Monday’s game against Orlando.
— The big negative story from the first two games of the season appears to be Philadelphia’s transition defense. This Charlotte team is an absolute handful on the break, with a clear emphasis on running and several different ballhandlers at a time who can beat you with speed or precision. I have enjoyed how the Hornets have looked to start the year, but the Sixers are also doing themselves no favors.
— Justin Edwards might be the most quintessential “shoot it or move it” player in the league. He had a great stretch in the second half from deep, but a pair of ugly turnovers on a travel and double-dribble where he just couldn’t get his feet together to attack on the move.
— The tandem of role players the Sixers have at power forward is a lot better than I was expecting when the roster settled in mid-July. But teams may already be figuring out a prime strategy against lineups that include Dominick Barlow or Jabari Walker at power forward: leave them alone in the corner and dare them to hit a three. Not exactly the first time the Sixers have been subjected to that.
Walker is a smoother-looking shooter mechanically, but it hasn’t mattered much to open the season. The Hornets didn’t get within five feet of him on any of his three-point attempts, and his misses only felt slightly closer than that.
