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Cam Payne scored a colossal 32 points off the bench in the best reserve night of the year for the Sixers, leading the 76ers to a 139-129 win over a hapless Grizzlies outfit. Kelly Oubre chipped in 31 points and 12 rebounds, with VJ Edgecombe scoring 21-5-5 in his return to action.
Here’s what I saw.
The VJ and…Cam Payne show?
VJ Edgecombe returning to the floor and doing VJ Edgecombe stuff was a welcome sight after the absolute snoozefest in Cleveland on Monday night. He struggled mightily from beyond in his return to the floor, but he added a wow factor and athleticism that have been sorely missing over the last week, and he added some fun on a bummer day for the organization.
Edgecombe appeared to have no physical limitations in his first game back, pushing the pace at every opportunity while also mixing it up for second-chance plays on the offensive end. The Grizzlies put a mighty small team on the floor in Philadelphia, empowering the Sixers to abandon Andre Drummond as an option entirely, and Edgecombe did well to take advantage of that on Tuesday night. His six free throws in the first half matched his high for any game not played against the Indiana Pacers, which is a funny way to frame stats the rest of the year. And he showed no let-up after halftime, pulling down an offensive rebound on a missed free throw for two quick points early in the fourth quarter.
With his touch evading him on the longball, Edgecombe got busy inside the arc against Memphis in the second half. A short midrange jumper here, a follow-up on his own missed runner there, the points slowly piled up before he eventually bowed out of the game in the fourth quarter due to foul trouble. And then a strange thing happened…the Sixers pulled in front and won anyway.
The unexpected backcourt hero alongside Edgecombe wasn’t Quentin Grimes, but the man they added to the end of the bench after the deadline. Who needs Jared McCain when you have Cam Payne on the bench? Wait, why are you throwing tomatoes at me?
In all seriousness, calling this a “breakthrough game” for the veteran guard would be a huge understatement. Payne has been drowning in most of his minutes since returning from the overseas tour and simply could not miss against the Grizzlies. He started the first half a perfect 5/5 from the field and 4/4 from downtown, eventually knocking down eight threes in what can only be described as a game-saving effort.
The threes are the obvious highlight, so feast your eyes on this as I relay to you that it’s the first 30-point effort from a Sixers bench player this season.
He had “in the gym” range against the Grizzlies, and I think he deserves some credit for what became a raucous arena in South Philadelphia. This was probably the best crowd of the season when you consider the general mood of the fanbase and the caliber of opponent in the building. There was juice basically all night, and they met every big moment with the energy it deserved. I fully believe that was a factor in the comeback effort, and I give Payne a huge chunk of the credit for getting the ball rolling. Few things get people going like a nuclear heater from three.
Payne once famously told reporters in Philadelphia that “energy costs nothing,” and he had a moment in the fourth quarter that personified that belief. Looking to pull the 76ers closer, he pressed rookie wing Cedric Coward as he brought the ball up the floor, drawing louder cheers each second that went by until Coward eventually fumbled the ball away. When Kelly Oubre eventually deposited an and-one to finish the sequence off, most of the team turned to seek out Payne and give him his love for sparking the play on defense.
Deep in the fourth quarter, with the Grizzlies scared to death of his shot, Payne managed to use that against Memphis in other ways, capping off a hellacious fourth-quarter run by attacking a closeout and hitting a drop-off pass to a cutting Dominick Barlow, who scored one of his few tough rim finishes in the process.
A much more fun game than it had any business being, I’ll tell you that much. Salute to the guards!
A huge Kelly Oubre outing
This is the sort of game where Kelly Oubre’s ability to go full-volume scoring mode is an asset. There are few scenarios where I’d want him taking 20+ shots, but this is one of them.
I don’t particularly care that he couldn’t buy a shot from three all night, because he responded to that by running the floor hard in transition, drawing tons of contact as a slasher, and moving with purpose off-ball. Oubre found ways to impact the game by any means necessary, and the Grizzlies simply could not stop him going downhill.
There were chip-ins from Oubre in other areas, too. The Sixers were as ragged on the rebounding front as in any other average game, but Oubre pulled down some loud ones during the stretch that ultimately closed this game, adding a pair of steals and a lot of scowling at the Grizzlies’ bench to cap off his night.
On a random night in March, Oubre pulled off the first 30-point, 10+ rebound performance of his NBA career. Not a bad time to do it.
What does it all mean?
These stretches of injury-plagued, beaten-down basketball are excruciating to watch for me, specifically because you can’t learn a lot from them regardless of whether they’re winning or losing. Oh, the Sixers got beaten up by the Cavaliers with four of their five starters unavailable? You mean to tell me Kelly Oubre is a viable primary option against a Grizzlies team playing guys who the league hasn’t submitted photos of to put on the jumbotron?
It doesn’t mean we give up on the mission of understanding and analyzing the game, of course. But I do feel like I’m droning on a bit about defensive coverages and overhelping when the truth is both teams on the floor were short on guys available to play who you’d trust to make good decisions regularly. If they could be trusted, Nick Nurse would likely play guys like Trendon Watford more regularly, because his playmaking feel and ability to punish size mismatches are super useful when teams load up to stop guys like Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid.
I’ll still continue to harp on the fundamental issues. The Sixers are not a great rebounding team even when they have their full roster available, but I have to tell you, Tuesday’s game featured some of the worst offensive rebounds they conceded all year. Javon Small, the smallest guy on the floor all night, managed to catch two different missed shots of his own and put them in the net after catching them in mid-air by reading them off the rim. The Grizzlies went without a real big man for most of the night, which makes the inability to end possessions even more infuriating. It’s not like they were getting beaten to balls at the summit by Zach Edey or something. It almost seems harder to be this hopeless at tracking the ball, boxing out, and figuring out when to stay home vs. leaking out in transition.
There are meaningful reps to be had here; I will not deny that. I am not going to go full spin zone and tell you that Adem Bona committing silly fouls and losing minutes is a good thing, but this type of game is a good lesson for him during a stretch where he is playing a lot and playing well. Improvements are not permanent, and good habits have to be constantly maintained to matter. Bona’s run of smart decisions came to a screeching halt in the first half, when he decided to pursue an offensive rebound with such force that he committed a foul in the coffin corner with no real chance at getting the ball. He fully earned his benching with foul No. 2 of the first quarter, and his third foul left him with nine first-half minutes played.
But I like to try to contextualize what we are watching within the mission of the season. And tonight, dear reader, there wasn’t much there. At least they got the W for the home crowd.
Other notes
— Watching this team set up in a zone and immediately conceding the easiest practice three you’ve ever seen never fails to make me mad. What do you mean you’re giving Cam Spencer a wide-open three after one pass? That’s his whole thing!
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