Paul George scored a team-leading 32 points, Joel Embiid scored 18 first-quarter points, and Jared McCain knocked down five threes in a 139-122 Sixers win over Milwaukee, giving Philadelphia the get-right game they needed.
Here’s what I saw.
Taking advantage of a day off
Joel Embiid and Paul George took Monday off, and sort of owed their guys big nights on Tuesday after the rest of them suffered a beatdown in Charlotte. Well, mission accomplished.
I know, I know, it was only the Milwaukee Bucks without Giannis. We’re not having a victory tour, word to Doc Rivers, over a Joel Embiid demolition of this team. But he just keeps stringing together effortlessly dominant games on offense, and I have to tell you, I wasn’t sure he was ever going to look this good for this long again. Neither were many of you, no matter how much you loved the big fella for performances of the past. We went so long without seeing this Embiid that it feels surreal to have him in this run of form.
Myles Turner was an Embiid punching bag for years, a very good player who had no shot in hell at slowing him down. It felt like old times in the first quarter, with Embiid going over or through him for a lot of early offense around the rim. That included a sequence featuring several offensive rebounds in a row on his own misses, a flurry of follow-up attempts that would have made Moses Malone proud. At the end of it, most importantly, was a bucket, and Embiid scored 18 points in the first quarter with a display of physical dominance and shooting touch. Give credit to Turner for his own pick-and-pop prowess, by the way as he kept pace with Embiid for a good chunk of that first half.
The most remarkable part of Embiid’s scoring start was that he eased his way into this game. Embiid was in facilitator mode to open the first quarter, looking for George, Maxey, even bench players like Edwards and McCain who joined them early on. But a matchup advantage is a matchup advantage, and once his guys were feeling comfortable, Embiid started working himself into scoring positions. I love the early work we’re seeing from him on the break, with Embiid setting up deep post position to force swipe-downs and other fouls of frustration from players who simply can’t guard him.
Anyone with two working eyes would tell you that this guy is in a different place physically compared to even a month ago, let alone the start of the season. When Embiid pointed for a transition lob and Tyrese Maxey hit him in flight, I nearly gasped in shock:
He looks damn good.
Onto the other vet star! We have not gotten many Paul George scoring explosions in a year and a half, but probably seven of them have been against the Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks. George killed the Hornets multiple times last season, and every time he has seen the cream and green of the Bucks this year, he has gone into all-out assault mode. I don’t bring that up to shame him, as I would rather other guys lead the offense, only to highlight his dominance against his old coach Doc Rivers this season. Take that, Glenn!
More seriously, George was close to singlehandedly responsible for holding off the Bucks as they went on the inevitable third-quarter run. The Sixers have discovered a staple play as Embiid has found his legs, running a pindown that teams often switch to prevent George from getting a clean look after the screen. Philly is happy to see that switch, as it most often leads to a favorable matchup for Embiid on the block. But you saw the second benefit of that combination against Milwaukee — with the Bucks often having to double Embiid and force it out of his hands. Back to George the ball goes, where he’s now able to isolate in peace. That was how he was able to get rolling, shooting over the top of guys like AJ Green in the middle of the floor.
But once George got going, he turned back the clock a bit, hitting three after three after three before the Bucks eventually had to start sending pressure and even some hard doubles at George. He navigated the extra attention beautifully, attacking downhill against hard closeouts and hitting beautiful cross-court passes from the paint after collapsing Milwaukee’s defense. I’m not sure it’s fair to call any shot George took a heat check, because he was absolutely on fire for what felt like 24 straight minutes.
Welcome back, Jared McCain!
Was a single stretch of garbage time threes, early VJ Edgecombe foul trouble, and a Quentin Grimes absence enough to finally get Jared McCain going? Okay, admittedly, that’s several noteworthy things all happening at the same time, but you have to take your opportunities as they present themselves. McCain looked like a normal basketball player in real rotation minutes for the first time in forever, and that is a big victory for Jared and the Sixers.
I’ll circle back to Embiid for just one moment here — those two showed natural chemistry early in McCain’s rookie season, and they played well off one another on Tuesday, pinging a few combination passes back and forth to hunt the best possible shot. It did not always lead to a direct assist or score for McCain, but with the Bucks struggling to figure out where the ball was headed between those two, help was forced to arrive, opening up windows around the floor. And I thought that set the stage for the type of game McCain had, flowing off of of his teammates more naturally than he had all year.
It was relatively subdued in the first half, with McCain knocking down a three and an off-hand layup in his first shift, otherwise swinging the ball around the horn as the Sixers executed Milwaukee to death. For so many of his shifts this season, you could pick McCain out for massive struggles as a shooter, ballhandler, and general cog of the offense, so blending with the crowd game is a big step forward.
But as George found his shooting boots in the second half, it was McCain who ended up being one of the primary beneficiaries. As George drew extra help all over the floor, McCain slid himself into the right spots for an outlet pass, and he banged home several loud threes to put the Bucks away, each successive make drawing a bigger cheer from the home crowd. And his teammates may have been more excited than anybody — VJ Edgecombe let out a hellacious scream and ran right at McCain after a huge three in transition in the fourth, letting his teammate feel the love after a breakthrough came at long last.
He will not produce lights-out shooting nights like this all the time, but McCain is a smart enough player to contribute in short shifts even as his body catches back up to last year’s form. I hope this is the start of his comeback effort, because he brings a dimension they have missed off the bench.
Other notes
— I thought this was a very solid game for Adem Bona.
— One of many games this year where VJ Edgecombe just did so many things to contribute to winning, even without a huge contribution as a scorer. Eight rebounds and seven assists from the off-guard spot are not as easy as he made it look, and he had a terrific stretch in the middle of the third to stabilize the Sixers right as it looked like they were going to give the game away. One Edgecombe drop-off and a three later, and they were back in cruise control.
— A successful 2-for-1 sequence to end the third quarter, I can’t believe my eyes. Great job, Tyrese.
— There has been a lot of consternation about the defense lately, particularly with Nick Nurse’s help principles, because he favors aggression and chaos creation over staying home on shooters. But their defensive struggles in this game were about nothing more than basic pick-and-roll defense, with the Sixers getting pretty thoroughly blasted at the point of attack. Myles Turner is not an offense-carrying star, but he is a player who makes it very difficult to defend if you can’t stop initial penetration from guards, dragging your big out of the paint with the threat of a three. He also did some good work as a roller, and Embiid frequently did the hard work to force a rim rebound, only for everyone else to go into headless-chicken mode. Tough stuff.
— How about Justin Edwards putting together an excellent first half? Getting shots to go down is the expectation to simply stay on the floor, because his defense has been poor enough this year to expect that will continue all season. But Edwards came ready for a real shift against Milwaukee, playing some inspired one-on-one defense and ripping the ball away from Bobby Portis for a noteworthy steal. He was probably about a half beat away from drawing a charge with a smartly-timed rotation to the paint, only just missing the timing to pick up a foul in the process. Even there, I was happy to see the gears turn quickly enough to miss out on a bang-bang play, a sign of a young player sharpening his off-ball defense.
The second half was, uh, a bit more of a mixed bag. Edwards’ disappointing season has fallen under the radar this year, but it would be a big deal for him to earn his way back to a real rotation role. They have not had enough shooting on the floor for a lot of this season, and with Edwards and McCain both joining the group on Tuesday, the floor was as open for the stars as it has been in a while.
