Sixers win sixth straight game with comfortable W over Pistons

The Sixers beat up the Pistons despite never taking it out of first gear, emerging with a 120-102 win over Detroit behind 37 points from Joel Embiid.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— I won’t sit here and declare Joel Embiid BACK, man, nor is it that important to analyze how he looks against a bunch of bozos like the Detroit Pistons. That being said, he has been able to wipe the floor with two consecutive bad teams, and I’ll take that as a good sign as he works his way back from the knee injury.

Embiid’s passing jumped out in this one, even with a heinous turnover or three splashed in for good measure. The Pistons are not exactly dialed in off-ball on defense — I’m trying to be nice here — and Embiid had cutters attacking the slot and the baseline all night long. It still took a bit of ingenuity for Embiid to find his running mates, and I was impressed by the variety of passes he threw through traffic. The big man leaned on the bounce pass as hard as I’ve ever seen him, letting defenders sit on his hip as he hit teammates in stride on their way to the rim.

Unsurprisingly, he has not been as physically dominant on offense as he would be at 100 percent health and fitness, which has made him somewhat reliant on his jumper. Here’s the good news: Embiid continues to be a force from midrange, stressing defenses from an area of the floor they’re usually happy to concede. With just four free throws to his credit in the first half, Embiid scored an easy 20 points, mostly thanks to his success as a jump shooter.

It was pretty easy to see he was in screw-around mode in this game, from attempts to throw behind-the-back passes to some less inspired defense on the other end of the floor. But against this opponent and with the Sixers shorthanded, he gave them precisely enough to get this one wrapped up quickly. Embiid would finish with 37 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, three steals, and two blocks, and he managed to cross the 35-minute threshold for the first time since returning. Not too bad for a guy who was only decent by his standards.

— Another game, another tale of two halves night for Kelly Oubre. The first half was a rough one for the veteran wing, with Oubre missing multiple wide-open threes and struggling to find much of anything as a downhill player. But he found his stride in this game right when Philadelphia needed it, helping to kill off a game that was dangerously close in the third quarter.

Some of that success can be chalked up to Oubre playing with more energy than his teammates. He had a pair of blocks on Jaden Ivey and James Wiseman in the final minutes of the third, with the latter play a sensational late recovery to prevent a dunk. Carrying that energy over to the other end of the floor, Oubre went on a mini scoring run by himself, closing the third quarter with a tough transition bucket and then a runner in the closing seconds, pushing the lead back to double-digits.

It has been nice that they can rely on Oubre for consistent effort and energy as of late, even when he has to fight through some cold shooting stretches in order to do so.

— The Sixers were badly in need of backup ballhandling help on Tuesday night, and Jeff Dowtin Jr. may have earned his rest-of-the-season contract with his performance vs. Detroit alone.

Composure was the keyword for me. Dowtin looked comfortable at the controls in pick-and-rolls and handoffs, but he was equally adept in the quick-decision role you have to play when Embiid is working in the middle of the floor. Dowtin made incisive passes on a couple of bang-bang reads on the perimeter, finding the open shooter right in his pocket for a clean look.

And while I won’t be nominating him for any All-Defense consideration, this was a nice steal-and-score during a miserable part of the second half, a basket that helped stave off the Pistons in the midst of their one-and-only run.

Good work from Dowtin.

— A good Buddy Hield shooting game, they’re allowed to happen!

Funny enough, I asked Nick Nurse about Hield’s recent struggles during the coach’s pregame presser, and he chalked some of them up to chasing the game instead of allowing shots to come to him naturally. Maybe this one will help him avoid that, but I didn’t think the shot diet was radically different than the usual game.

— Two noteworthy players returned from injury on Tuesday night, with De’Anthony Melton’s return ranking as more “important” due to how long he has been out. Philadelphia’s versatile guard has had most of this season stolen from him due to a back injury, with many of us wondering whether he can be counted on as a playoff rotation player. One game down, I suppose, but we’ll all hold our breath to see how his back responds.

Let’s focus on the positives. For a guy who has been out or barely available for months, Melton looked good physically, skying for an offensive rebound early in his first shift while otherwise moving around well. He hit just one of his four first-half attempts, a catch-and-shoot three from the perimeter, but you could see the outline of the guy who has featured in a lot of productive lineups for Philly. He’s a good connective passer, a willing shooter, and he has a functional handle, with Nurse immediately putting him to work as both a handoff partner for Embiid and a catch-and-shoot threat.

If he can get back to a reasonable level of conditioning and sharpness, the Sixers will have another strong option for the rotation, a fringe starter who will be overqualified for a bench role. Here’s hoping this is the start of an extended run of health for No. 8.

The other returning player was Tobias Harris, who has been on the mend with a bruised knee over the last few games. His return wasn’t super inspiring as an attacker, but give him some credit for hitting the glass hard in a game where the Sixers’ effort there was, well, not at its best. I’d have a higher tolerance for his cold spells and offensive quirks if he was consistently a double-digit rebounder.

The Bad

— When the Sixers are at full strength, I can totally understand going through the motions against the Pistons. Frankly, I can understand why they would sleepwalk through this game even with a lot of reserves playing, given the recent win streak and the state of Detroit. But this is an experienced and good enough team to know how to screw around against a bad team while still winning easily. This was not that sort of performance for the first 2.5 quarters.

To open the third quarter, the Sixers committed five fouls in less than three minutes against one of the worst teams in the league. That can be the product of a lot of things — overzealousness and youth are often to blame — but I’d chalk up a fair amount of their fouls to sloppiness or laziness in this one. Rather than doing their work early to beat Detroit to spots and force tough attempts, they constantly found themselves chasing, leading to a lot of bad slapdowns and avoidable collisions.

There were certainly some personnel-related problems in this one, too. When Cam Payne is at the point of attack (or in any sort of prominent role), you are probably going to have some issues defensively.

Anyway, they cleaned it up and got the win by 18, so whatever.

The Ugly

— I’m not sure if there will be a video or a GIF of this moment, but I hope one emerges at some point…

Embiid was paired with Jeff Dowtin as the lead ballhandler to open the second quarter, and the big man spotted something in Detroit’s coverage to exploit. Before executing a handoff at the top of the key, Embiid yelled across the floor to Dowtin, apparently telling him to skip the DHO altogether with the Pistons sitting on it. When Dowtin did what was told and got to the paint easily, Embiid turned around and pumped his fist, convinced that Dowtin’s made layup was in the bag.

Dear reader, it was not in the bag. And Embiid did not realize he had smoked a layup until the crowd groaned, with the big man turning with a confused face back toward their offensive goal. Very funny stuff.