Joel Embiid produced a 28-point triple-double with LeBron James sitting out for the night, earning the Sixers a 127-116 win to move Philadelphia to 3-0 to start the year.
Here’s what I saw.
No LeBron, no some problems
I would have loved to report that removing LeBron James from the lineup did not affect the Sixers in a matchup with the 0-2 Bucks. Unfortunately, this played out like a classic trap game, with Philly easing into a game that Milwaukee took seriously enough to put a scare into them in the first half.
When the Sixers ran things through Joel Embiid early in the game, they looked well on their way to a blowout victory. Embiid led the charge as they sprinted to a 10-1 lead right out of the chute, hitting a series of his patented midrange jumpers while still keeping sight of his guards and shooters all around the floor. It should come as no surprise that Embiid would come out firing against this Bucks team — Myles Turner has spent his career being beaten like a drum by Embiid, who is just too big and too skilled for Milwaukee’s relatively light center to deal with.
Unfortunately, Embiid is not capable of playing every minute of every game, and when they sent him to the bench, Adem Bona’s lack of progress as a player was apparent for the third consecutive game. The case for relying on him heading into the year rested on Bona using the athletic tools that got him drafted along with a more developed understanding of the game, cutting down on the fouls and negative plays that popped up too frequently last season. Immediately after checking in on Saturday, Bona decided he ought to try to take a transition possession all the way to the rim, which turned into a Philadelphia turnover and a Bucks bucket on the other end.
It didn’t get much better from there, with Bona picking up two quick fouls, helping to put the Bucks in the bonus for the final seven-plus minutes of the second. I don’t think Nurse did a great job of structuring lineups around him, using some very small three-guard lineups that weren’t going to overcome his rebounding issues, but Bona has looked fairly clueless on both sides of the ball to start the year. With a potential night off for Embiid looming, his slow start to the year will become a lot more meaningful in a hurry.
The good news, of course, is that they still ultimately had Embiid to lean on, and certainly the years-old partnership between him and Maxey. Their best offense all night long came through two-man actions involving their star guard and center, the ball pinging back and forth as they preyed on Milwaukee’s indecisiveness. One of the best sequences of the night came midway through the third, when Embiid rolled all the way to the rim and scored an easy layup after Maxey hesitated just enough to set up the drop-off and lightly contested make. They forced another Bucks timeout early in the fourth, with Embiid hitting a gorgeous pass through traffic to a streaking Maxey, who tossed in a tough lefty layup to finish the job. Embiid’s passing was outstanding out of dribble handoffs all night, and he was at the center of a few highlight-reel plays in the second half alone:
Developing further chemistry between Jaylen Brown and Embiid was another side benefit of LeBron’s absence, and those two got to work in the pick-and-roll with extended against Milwaukee. Brown is quickly learning the cadence of those possessions and figuring out when he needs to hesitate for a half second to allow the defense to show their hand, offering him an open lane or a passing opportunity. It already looks more natural than a week or two, and they were able to create pull-up threes, short midrange jumpers, and early-offense looks by leaning on one another.
It looked dicey for the Sixers when Embiid got his rest toward the end of the third, and Maxey picked a good time to emerge from an early shooting slump to create real separation going into the fourth quarter. A huge pull-up three with about two minutes left in the third was the start of a one-man run by Maxey, who closed the period out with a high-arcing fadeaway over Kel’el Ware’s outstretched arms.
Still, this was not a serious team performance compared to the first two games. They were leaky in transition, dominated by Milwaukee in transition for most of the night after two outrageously good games on the break to open the season. Rebounding remains a massive question mark for any nights without the full lineup available, and we expect another one of those is coming on Sunday. Still, 3-0 is 3-0, and a lower-effort victory is exactly what you want
Role player report
This was the best outing yet for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and it could not have come at a better time for the Sixers. He responded to dwindling focus from his teammates with the same brand of committed defense that got him in the rotation, securing a pair of steals to go with more deflections and pressure defense in the first half. KCP was also the lone bench player to get anything meaningful going on offense, knocking down a pair of threes to help juice the offense against Milwaukee.
Reminders that he once played with another great big man are already popping up, too. With Embiid establishing deep position in a crowd of Bucks bodies, KCP lobbed a beautiful entry pass that only his man could catch in the first half, with Embiid ultimately securing the ball and going up to draw a foul in one swift motion. Little plays like that won’t show up in the box, but they’ll make a big difference over the course of a long season.
The other bench standout was Jabari Walker, who entered the game and almost immediately made a difference with nothing more than smart cutting and effort on the boards. He seemed to pop up again and again around the rim, extending possessions with rebounds and drawn fouls alike. The only downside? Walker appeared to suffer a mild hyperextension (talk about an oxymoron) in the third quarter, nearly walking right back to the locker room before returning to the floor to take his two free throws. Up to that point, he had emerged as a strong candidate to start at center if Embiid sits vs. Detroit, so we’ll see what the word is on his health after the game.
Other notes
— VJ Edgecombe took a painful shot to the midsection early in the first half and disappeared into the locker room for a while, missing the entire third quarter with little-to-no explanation. EDIT: I somehow missed the moment when he picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter. Whoops! That certainly is an explanation. When he was on the floor, Edgecombe finally found his shooting boots after a tough preseason from deep, knocking down five threes for his only makes from the field all night.
He’s going to put it all together in a game soon, and he nearly did on Saturday even on a pretty weird night. Edgecombe managed to add 13 rebounds to his box score in limited minutes, including a massive rebound in traffic that turned into a Brown three they desparately needed in the closing minutes. And it was Edgecombe’s strip of Jamie Jaquez Jr. that produced the game’s ultimate dagger, a KCP three that pushed the lead to nine with a minute and change to go. He is cold as ice when it counts in crunch time, and they needed every bit of his physical and mental toughness to close this game out.
— I don’t mean to bury Jaylen Brown down here, because his ability to go out and crush an individual matchup was a key part of a third straight victory for Philadelphia. Ho hum, he dropped another 20+ points cooking the opposing team with dominance from midrange and in. It’s already becoming familiar!
— Anfernee Simons shot horribly in this game on a series of pretty good looks from the perimeter, but he did show off some pretty excellent passing out of pick-and-rolls against Milwaukee, hitting two different skip passes to corner shooters in the second half.
