The Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics took dramatically different approaches to their final tune-up before games start to count next week.
The Celtics, having played most of their regulars when these two teams met last week, elected to sit Jayson Tatum, Paul George, Derrick White and most of the players that your typical NBA fan would have heard of, instead throwing out a starting lineup of Gabe McGlothan, Tucker DeVries, Milos Uzan, Hayden Gray and Chris Cenac Jr, a five man pairing that is virtually guaranteed to never see the floor together after tonight.
(In fairness, the Celtics did bring a few of their key reserves off the bench, such as Luka Garza, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman and others.)
The Sixers, on the other hand, ran out a starting lineup that included Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James and Joel Embiid. VJ Edgecombe was the only Sixers starter that head coach Nick Nurse elected to sit, replaced in the starting lineup by veteran Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Just reading the names in the last two paragraphs and you would expect a blowout, but that was not necessarily the case, especially early on, when the Sixers lost the first quarter by 34-28. Going 0-8 from the 3-point line certainly didn’t help, but they were sloppy as well, finishing with seven turnovers in the opening quarter, including three each by Embiid and Maxey.
But over time the Sixers did eventually find their footing. The turnovers subsided, the transition game got going, and the Sixers started relying on some of their dynamic two-man games to stabilize their offense when confined to the half-court.
“We’re a couple weeks in. We’re still working on our rhythm, working out our kinks, and it’s not gonna be perfect. But we have some things we can build on. We did a lot of good things tonight,” LeBron James said after the game. “Every day we’re getting better and better, so we just gotta keep working at it.”
In the end, the Sixers wound up outscoring the Celtics by eight points in both the second and third quarters of play. They still lost, thanks to a 31-21 burst by the Celtics in the fourth quarter to force overtime, where Boston pulled away, but both teams had pulled their regulars long before we got to that point of the game.
Despite their early struggles, when all was said and done Joel Embiid finished the night with 27 points on 7-13 shooting, to go along with eight rebounds and five assists in 29 minutes of play. Tyrese Maxey added 22 and six, Jaylen Brown 20 points and eight rebounds, and LeBron James an 8/8/7 performance that was highlighted by a couple of nifty passes and an alley-oop dunk from new teammate Tyrese Maxey.
“Nothing really special about [opening night],” Embiid said after the game, focusing instead on the bigger picture. “The way I see it is taking it day-by-day, slowly getting better to be able to … you know, I got one thing on my mind. It’s about the process that it takes to get there, so that’s what I’m focused on.”
Given how much talent they’ve added to the team, and how little they’ve played together, last night might end up being a microcosm of the entire season: early struggles and sloppiness before they eventually figure things out, hopefully evolving into an unstoppable force by the time the games truly start to matter in April.
Big Picture Takeaway
One of the aforementioned two-man games that the Sixers used to steady the ship is the one that has the most reps between them: the Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid two-man game.
Embiid’s play was up and down in the first quarter, shooting just 2-5 from the field with three turnovers in a little over nine first quarter minutes. But he was dominant from there on out, scoring a combined 19 points on 5-8 shooting with just one turnover in the next two frames.
“We got to a couple good sets there, varied two or three of them,” Nurse said of Embiid’s success later on in the game. “More rust coming off, and they were pretty rhythmic and decisive shots.”
For a team that has so many new, key pieces to integrate, so many tendencies to learn, having two stars who have years of reps under their belts, including in high-leverage playoff situations, gives the Sixers a key set that they can revert back to in order to help stabilize the game.
Some games the Sixers will rely on this two-man game more than others. On nights when the Sixers have a 1-5 matchup that they can exploit, they might spam that action like it’s 2023. On other nights, when Jaylen is cooking or when LeBron has a matchup he can exploit, you might not see a ton of it. But it’s the kind of set that the Sixers should go back to at least a few times every night if for no other reason than to get the big man into a rhythm. He can hit that jumper in his sleep, and with the combined gravity of Maxey, Brown, VJ, Simons, KCP, et al around them, he should have plenty of space to go to work.
But the chemistry between Embiid and Maxey isn’t just about that patented pocket pass: Maxey is also adept at finding cutting lanes off of the big man, as he did multiple times on Friday night.
The Sixers may be less reliant on the Embiid/Maxey two-man game than they were in years past, but it’s a great card for them to have in their back pockets that they can go to when the offense is stuck in mud.
Stray thoughts
- Another strong outing from Jabari Walker, who has arguably been the team’s most consistent player in the short preseason.
- Watching LeBron James go to work as a passer out of the post was a joy to watch. Between James and Embiid the Sixers’ perimeter shooters should have a ton of open looks this year. Hopefully they shoot better than 18% on most nights.
- Jaylen Brown (and, presumably, VJ Edgecombe when he’s in the lineup) should be able to go to work against other team’s backup units when some combination of Embiid, Maxey and LeBron go to the bench. Brown has consistently turned the attack dial up to 10 in the preseason during these minutes, and as the Sixers start sprinkling in more shooters (like Anfernee Simons), that should give Brown even more space to operate, which will make his hesitation moves even tougher to slow down.
- Dean Wade left the game in the first half after rolling his ankle. “Not a major concern, but just cautious because it’s a preseason game,” Nurse said after the game.
- Tyrese Maxey scored 22 points on 11 shots in 30 minutes, but finished with just three 3-point attempts on the night. I thought that could have easily been seven or eight attempts had his teammate swung the ball over to him when he was open in the corner. Everyone is learning each other’s strengths and preferences, plus it’s preseason, so you’re not going to stress too much over this. But as we’ve talked about before Maxey is one of the best corner 3-point shooters on the planet and I’m gonna need his teammates to be on the lookout for him. Leaving Maxey in the corner should be terrifying for opponents, and it only becomes that if his teammates cooperate.
Stat of the game
Stat – 9.8% offensive rebounding rate
The Sixers collected just five offensive rebounds on 51 missed shots, good for a 9.8% offensive rebounding rate. By contrast, the Boston Celtics collected 18 offensive rebounds on 64 missed shots (28.1%).
For context, the Sixers had just one game all of last season where they collected fewer than 10% of their own missed shots. The Sixers were outrebounded in three of their four games this preseason, and usually decisively so.
“There’s still some concerns there that I think we’re doing a pretty good job of checking, but we’re not in what I call make two moves,” Nurse said after the game when asked what he’s going to focus on in the next few days of practice. “I thought we’d made our move to block out, but the ball is now live and we gotta get more bodies in there to run those down.”
Quotables
“I think we want to play fast and I think there has been a little bit of carelessness, or sloppiness might be a better word. I think that the looks are correct, we just gotta be a little bit more sure of them, take them a little further, get a little better angle, make sure it’s not just floated up for grabs.” — Nick Nurse, on his team’s turnovers.
“I think I’m happy with, at least, they’re looking. I think the pass first mentality is there, now we just gotta make sure they’re a little bit more sure passes.” — Nick Nurse, on the balance between ball movement and limiting turnovers.
“I guess it’s good to dunk. I thought I would never dunk again. I guess, I don’t know what happened. I think my mind kind of changed mid-air. I was gonna lay it up, and then I saw he came over to try to block it, and I was like ‘alright, I guess try to dunk it’. I’m glad it worked out.” — Joel Embiid, on his third quarter dunk.
“Taking it day-by-day. Trusting the work that I’ve put in, and trust in God. For me, whatever happens, happens. Whether it’s good or bad you get back up and keep going. I don’t really think about what happened and where I’ve been, I’m just focused on the now, and keep going, and taking it day-by-day and just enjoying it.” — Joel Embiid, reflecting on the injury problems he’s battled over the last few years, and on being healthy to start this season.
“I don’t really feel like watching that whole ceremony, so I guess I’ll be in the locker room.” — Joel Embiid, on opening night in New York.
“It’s been great being around all these guys. Fresh bodies, fresh energy, a little different than what it’s been the last couple years. Everybody’s in a good mood, so gotta keep it going. We’re gonna have some ups and downs, so it’s all about staying balanced, staying even-keeled, and then go from there.” — Joel Embiid, on differences he’s felt this year.
“Most important for us is to clean glass. If we do that, it’s a lineup that we can go to, but it’s not been long enough minutes with it to know good or bad. For us, we want to continue [to try it].” — LeBron James, on small-ball lineups at center.
“I know what Jo’s capable of. I mean, he’s one of the best players in the world. The sky’s the limit for him. For him, obviously, he’s been in all the practices, he’s been in everything. So the health is showing and he’s just starting to get his rhythm more and more.” — LeBron james, on the performance of Joel Embiid.
“We had a practice, and it was a late game situation and Bona rolled, and [LeBron] was standing there and he moved out the way and he said ‘I got y’all when we get to the game’, and he took it….We don’t want Bona running Bron over.” — Tyrese Maxey, relaying a story about LeBron James avoiding taking a charge during practice, explaining why the team was so excited when he took one in the game against the Celtics.
