The Philadelphia 76ers, led by the return of Tyrese Maxey and some excellent, clutch play from rookie VJ Edgecombe, pulled away down the stretch in a nip-and-tuck game against the New York Knicks for a 116-107 road win that was one of their most impressive performances of the season, given the level of competition.

Here’s what I saw.

VJ Edgecombe’s clutch two-way play
If you take away VJ Edgecombe’s historic 34 point, seven rebound performance in his NBA debut, this is the best stretch of basketball that we’ve seen from the Sixers’ prized young rookie.

That’s some high praise, considering that Edgecombe averaged 17.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game over his next five games after that impressive debut, but I think it’s deserved in this case. After finishing with 22/4/5 against the Pacers, and following it up with 26/6/2 against the Hawks, VJ followed it up with yet another exemplary display here on Friday night against the Knicks.

The most impressive stretch of Edgecombe’s performance came a little bit more than midway through the third quarter, when the Sixers needed to get Tyrese Maxey a bit of rest. Edgecombe immediately came out, realizing that he’s going to need to carry more of the scoring burden with Maxey out, and drilled a pull-up jumper to get things started. On New York’s next possession, Edgecombe switched from Jalen Brunson and onto Mikal Bridges, using a good, under control, hard closeout to force Bridges to put the ball on the floor, creating a turnover. Edgecombe then came down on the other end of the floor, running the offense, and knifed his way through the pesky New York defense until he was able to get almost all the way to the rim, pulling Bona’s man away from the rim to setup and easy dump-off pass to Bona for a dunk.

More and more, we’re seeing the game slow down for Edgecombe, and we’re seeing it happen in virtually every facet of the game, all at once.

Edgecombe made a number of tough driving layups early on, an area of his game that is seemingly improving by the day. He’s getting better at getting deep into the paint, and is showing that he’s increasingly comfortable reacting to, and occasionally initiating, contact, without getting thrown off of his spot. He then followed it up with a pair of threes, some nice moments initiating the offense, and some real tough pull-up jumpers that made this one of his better offensive performances of the season.

But perhaps even more impressive was the work that he was putting in on the defensive side of the court. His versatility was on full display, credibly defending various different archetypes, from Jalen Brunson to Josh Hart to Mikal Bridges.

The work on Brunson was particularly notable, as New York’s two-time All-Star, and MVP candidate, has the kind of misdirection, hesitation and foul-baiting game that typically puts rookie guards in hell. But Edgecombe stood his ground, worked his way through screens, and slid his feet to stay in front of Brunson no matter how many times he tried to change direction or speeds to catch the Sixers’ rookie off guard.

It all came together down the stretch for Edgecombe, which is something we’ve seen time and time again for the 20-year-old rookie who plays with poise well beyond his years. Edgecombe made a key tip-in with a little over a minute left, then dove on the floor for a huge offensive rebound to set up a Tyrese Maxey corner 3-pointer with 48 seconds left that sealed the game for the Sixers.

When the game was wrapped up, Edgecombe finished with 23 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals, and is now averaging 23.7 points per game over his last three games.

This was the kind of game that makes you realize that the former #3 overall pick is just scratching the surface of his two-way potential, which is especially impressive given Edgecombe’s already playing 35 minutes per night on a team fighting for a playoff spot.

Defensive rebounding is a problem

The Sixers (10th) and Knicks (3rd) came into the game among the best in the league at taking care of the ball, and were similarly ranked on the offensive glass (Knicks 4th, Sixers 8th, believe it or not). Who would win the possession battle would go a long way to determining this one.

Obviously, Mitchell Robinson led the charge on the offensive glass, as he frequently does. But it was a true team effort from the Knicks, with seven (7!) different players having at least two offensive rebounds for New York.

The Sixers have actually worked their way into being a league average defensive rebounding team on the season, although I’m not sure I truly trust that the ranking will hold over the increased scrutiny of the second half of the season. But this one was a disaster, and undid some of the positive goodwill they had built on the glass over the previous few weeks.

Obviously, when a team gives up 21 offensive rebounds on just 49 missed shots for New York, it’s a team failure for the Sixers. But I’m going to use this space to briefly mention yet another disappointing effort from Adem Bona. After picking up three fouls in just three minutes in the first half, Bona did a better job of staying out of foul trouble after intermission, but he still wasn’t all that effective. Bona was caught between trying to step up to contest Brunson (and New York’s other perimeter players), pulling up off the dribble, but rarely actually impacting the shot, and almost always out of defensive rebounding position as a result.

The Sixers need more out of Bona, both in the short term (Joel Embiid is going to miss more time), and in the long term (Andre Drummond is 32, and on the final year of his contract). It has definitely been a disappointing start to the season for the Sixers’ second year big man.

Stray thoughts

• Very weird going this deep into a recap and barely mentioning Tyrese Maxey, who had some incredible shot-making moments on his way to 30 points (11-24 shooting) and 8 assists. But we’ve kind of come to just expect that out of the Sixers’ star guard. Perhaps just as notable was the consistent effort Maxey might fighting through screens on the perimeter, not only disrupting New York’s offensive flow, but also continuing to make himself a pick-6 threat on a team that desperately needs any transition opportunities that they can get.
• Off nights from Paul George (7 points, 2-10 shooting, 1-6 from 3) and Quentin Grimes (5 points, 1-4 shooting). PG seemed like he got some good looks early on, and when they didn’t go, he started to press. Grimes’ ball handling is still an adventure, and he had an off-night shooting from the perimeter. I’m not terribly worried about either, but it put the Sixers in the hole. Luckily, Edgecombe and Maxey were able to pick up the slack.
• Tip of the cap to Dominick Barlow, who came out as a ball of energy early, and one of the few players who can match New York’s combination of hustle and athleticism. Barlow finished with 11 points and 4 rebounds, all offensive, with nine of the points (and all of the rebounds) coming in the first quarter.