Jaylen Brown scored 23 first-half points and finished with 30 to lead the Sixers to a 112-106 win over the Pistons, pushing the 76ers to an 8-1 record and their first 4-0 start on the road in a quarter century. Joel Embiid added 26 points and 14 rebounds in an excellent outing for their star center.
Here’s what I saw.
A statement outing by Jaylen Brown
Make no mistake about it: Jaylen Brown has had a very good start to his Sixers career, but there has been a feeling of wanting a little bit more out of their big offseason acquisition. That’s driven in part by Brown’s own feelings, because he has talked about lacking a bit of explosion as he deals with soreness in several different areas early in the season.
Well, if you wanted an explosiveness indicator, this is as good as you’re going to get:
One of the things that drives Brown detractors annoyed is also what makes him special — he feels (rightly!) that he can win almost any individual matchup, wearing the opponent down physically before rising up to fire. That can lead to moments where he fails to see a double or a passing opportunity, but it also means he can have some of the league’s best defenders on him without Brown ever noticing. It was the latter type of game for Brown on Wednesday night, with Ausar Thompson draped all over him and completely powerless to stop Brown anywhere on the floor. Thompson and the rest of Detroit’s defenders had to leave this one completely demoralized, with Brown simply outshooting their best attempts at defense even with an arm or a hand hovering within inches of Brown’s eye.
Brown’s three-point shooting may be the most important brewing story in Philadelphia from the first 10 games of the season. He came into the Detroit game shooting nearly 42 percent from downtown this season and kept building on that in their massive Eastern Conference showdown, hitting three first-half threes, which included a quarter-beating three from well beyond the arc to close out the first quarter. Brown had fallen to the mid-to-low 30s from deep over the last few seasons as he took on more on-ball responsibility, and part of the thesis of this team rests on Brown reclaiming some of his early-career success. There’s a long road ahead, of course, but a great start has been much needed with other Sixers players lagging behind from deep.
(Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey are two of the big culprits there, and the latter struggled mightily all over the floor against Detroit, another data point in a concerning trend. )
In addition to the all-world offense, Brown was a huge part of Philadelphia’s solution for Cade Cunningham, who was running hot to start the game while matched up with VJ Edgecombe, simply shooting over him from the midrange for a few early buckets. Nick Nurse did not waste a lot of time changing the matchups, unleashing Brown, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Dean Wade to show Cunningham different looks and disrupt his timing. Brown generated two turnovers in quick succession during one noteworthy first-half sequence, hanging all over Cunningham and denying him the ball as Detroit’s offense slowed to a crawl.
And Brown saved his biggest play for the final minute, with the Pistons within range for a comeback win. Cade Cunningham tried to hit a pull-up three to secure a two-for-one in a four-point game, but Brown swooped in for an emphatic block on the jumper, winning the ball back for Philly and effectively putting the game to rest.
This type of night for Brown could not have come at a better time, because Tyrese Maxey had a total clunker, missing layups and open jumpers as the Pistons completely discombobulated him once again. With their metronome off-beat for the first time all year, having a one-man offense to turn to on the wing ain’t half bad.
The other stars
Having watched the likes of Tony Wroten leading from the point of attack for the local hoops team, I feel damn lucky to be here for the LeBron James experience. Forget about the body of work, I think LeBron threw two passes on a single possession that I’ve never seen a Sixers player make in my lifetime. His ability to use strength and finesse in equal measure is special, and it was part of what unlocked a stingy Pistons defense on Wednesday night.
LeBron’s passing is so outrageous that it makes role players look better than they are with almost anyone else. Adem Bona had a strong two-way shift for Philly in the first half, but it was a pair of back-to-back buckets that drew most of the attention during that stint. Each came on a frozen-rope pass from LeBron at the top of the key, passes so good that they must have bullied Bona into discovering a working set of hands.
With LeBron doing most of the difficult passing, the Sixers are slowly finding the balance between tapping into isolation talent and moving the ball around the floor. Joel Embiid is looking for cutters more than ever and creating great space for his teammates as a screener, creating good offense even when the stats don’t reflect it. They have become one of the league’s most dangerous transition teams before the first month of basketball is up, thanks to elite outlet passing from LeBron and tremendous team speed from Maxey and Edgecombe.
On the Embiid front, efficiency was basically the only problem for him on Wednesday, and he even made up for that with an outstanding night at the line. Facing a Pistons frontline that had no one in his weight class, Embiid drew constant doubles and had one of his most forceful games on the offensive glass, ragdolling a few Detroit bigs to create extra Sixers possessions. He slowly accumulated points at the line and wore the Pistons down inside, offering the antidote they needed for Detroit’s switch-heavy style. The most heartening thing of all is that he is chasing down rebounds all over the floor, putting as much effort and attention to detail into that area of the game as he has in years.
As a group, I continue to be blown away by the commitment and decision-making of the stars on defense. There were elite help-defense moments from Embiid, Brown, and LeBron, cutting off promising opportunities and resetting a Detroit offense that has to work hard enough to create a single good look in the halfcourt. This group has a chance to be among the league’s best on both ends of the floor by the time it’s all said and done, and it’s quite a thrill to watch already.
Other notes
— Marc Davis doesn’t get the same scrutiny as a notorious game changer like Tony Brothers, but he is a horrible official who constantly allows games to deteriorate into madness because he doesn’t have the conviction to make calls when they happen. There was a mid-game scuffle involving Embiid that earned Philly’s franchise center a tech, and it was a rare instance where I thought the officials should have used a double tech to sort things out.
— Just when I was ready to declare it a good Bona game, he appeared in the second half. So it goes.
— Did VJ Edgecombe exchange hands with Bona before the game? A handful of really terrible drops from him on plays that would have extended the lead.
