Sixers drop to 1-6 and pick up Tyrese Maxey injury vs. Clippers

The Sixers played one competitive half of basketball before getting bulldozed in the third quarter, falling 110-98 to the Clippers on Wednesday. Tyrese Maxey left the game in the third and did not return due to what the team called right hamstring soreness.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— Chalk it up to shaking off the rust vs. Phoenix or the extra motivation to face his old team, but no matter what the reason was, this was the version of Paul George everyone was hoping for. The Sixers opened this game with some of the most disgusting offense you could run, and George nullified those brutal possessions by just shooting over the top of the Clippers. What a beautiful option to be able to lean on late in the shot clock.

George was much more than a shotmaker in the first half, making a ton of plays as a roamer off-ball. He has almost immediately become their best weakside rim protector, which is both an indictment of the rest of the roster and an acknowledgment of his length and athleticism. George has also been a menace in passing lanes through two games, and he broke up several skip attempts from Clippers players on Wednesday night.

He also simply did not play enough in this game. George logged just 17 minutes through the first three quarters, so the efficiency and defensive chops only made so much of a difference.

— Kelly Oubre was efficient and (mostly) competed hard on defense. More than you can say for a lot of these guys.

— Good minutes from Ricky Council IV in the desperate stretch of the fourth quarter. Perhaps Nurse should consider playing him over 36+ guards who can’t move.

The Bad

— I could have started writing this sentence at any point during the first half and been within 45 seconds of a turnover. The Sixers had turned the ball over 12 times by halftime, and while you’d chalk a few of these up to the lack of chemistry problem we discuss often, far too many came on airhead plays and rushed passes that reflect their poor playmaking talent.

They gave the ball back to the Clippers in every way you could imagine. One possession, it was a pass from George into Eric Gordon’s shins from several feet away. A play or two later, it would be a complete miscommunication with a pass fired into Philadelphia’s visiting bench.

This is a problem that concerns me greatly in the long term because it’s one of the few Joel Embiid can’t fix with his return. The big man is many things, but he is an inconsistent playmaker prone to sloppy mistakes as a passer, which is the same thing you’d say about the bulk of guys on this roster. Kyle Lowry is really the only guy with a claim on “above average” passing talent and he can’t consistently create the space anymore to actually use it.

— Caleb Martin’s shot mechanics have never been the prettiest, but they have looked markedly worse for Philadelphia this season. Add him to the list of people who arrived in town and suddenly came down with a case of jumperitis, I guess.

Martin’s mechanics have looked almost completely different from possession to possession, which is not a sustainable way to make shots. When he has risen into catch-and-shoot jumpers with no hesitation, he has gotten closest to a fluid motion, even releasing some of those looks at the highest possible release point. Unsurprisingly, those shots have had the best chance of going in, but they’re far outnumbered by shots that are being double-clutched with a lackluster base to boot.

It’s also tough to give him too much credit for getting to the free-throw line when he is missing the majority of the attempts that are put up from the stripe. I respect that he is finding ways to produce by any means necessary, but it would feel much better if he could make some damn threes and freebies.

— Right back to the scrap heap for Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon. Turns out, it’s hard to rely on old guards on a night-to-night basis.

The Ugly

— Tyrese Maxey was conspicuously absent from Philadelphia’s early offense on Wednesday, which would help explain why they came out and looked horrible to open the game. As soon as Paul George got his first rest of the night, though, it was on, and Maxey turned James Harden’s career of switch-hunting against him for a beautiful first-half stretch. That was, unfortunately, the only part of the game where Maxey felt like a central part of their gameplan. I blame him for that, but I also blame the lack of structure.

To make matters worse, Maxey was spotted grabbing at his leg late in the third quarter and he wouldn’t return to the game after that. The Sixers ruled him out with right hamstring soreness early in the fourth quarter, and it’s beginning to feel a lot like they’ll never get all three stars on the floor at the same time.

(Also, he was a trainwreck on defense even prior to the injury, but we’ll spare him from further criticism in light of the injury.)

— Some of Philadelphia’s problems are issues you simply can’t fix with anything other than more reps. It’s tough to get more reps in pairings or five-man lineups when they’re toggling through so many different combinations in search of what works. That’s directly within the control of Nick Nurse, who has gone past tinkering into mad scientist chaos.

There doesn’t seem to be any logic to some of Nurse’s lineup decision-making right now. Want to play small and get lots of shooting on the floor? Cool, you should probably do that when you have Drummond around to man the paint and rebound. Want to spread it out and play small? Also a smart thing to do, I think, but maybe try doing so with several wings on the floor instead of a Lowry/Gordon/Maxey combo. Their lineup balance has been brutal in one way or another, and that’s not all a function of a limited roster. Some of these groups are being sent out to fail on paper, and no one should be surprised when they fail in practice.

Nurse has been a huge early disappointment for me. The Sixers knew that on some level they needed to develop a coherent plan without Joel Embiid, and they look like they have no plan and no prayer at least half of the time. Their offensive structure is close to nonexistent, they’re shuffling through lineups constantly, and he has not won any battles on the margins (his challenges have been close to useless for over a season now). A lot to prove in the weeks and months to come. Maybe play young guys who can move as a start.

— Perhaps Nick Nurse didn’t want to risk alienating Andre Drummond by stripping his minutes away two nights in a row, or perhaps he simply feared the prospect of Yabusele playing against Zubac over extended minutes. Those are reasonable enough concerns. They probably should have been pushed to the side if it meant having a better chance to win a game.

Drummond should not be held responsible for systemic lineup failures, but within a shooting-starved lineup, his brand of rim-bound ball is just about the last thing the Sixers need right now. There were moments in this game where Maxey was able to get a favorable switch against James Harden and yet still had no chance to get to a favorable spot in the paint — Zubac would position on Maxey’s strong side in the paint with Martin or Oubre’s man cheating from the weak side behind him, making drive attempts pointless. Drummond also came up to screen Maxey on multiple occasions after he had a favorable matchup, forcing a trap for no reason that ruined their offensive setup.

He had better moments in the third quarter, admittedly, finishing some cheapies around the basket and picking up a few offensive rebounds. But he just seems off the pace and ineffective most of the time and looks overextended in the spot starter role currently.

(Even though I still don’t think he can protect the rim, the Sixers may have to consider using Guerschon Yabusele as Joel Embiid’s primary backup when the big man returns. I don’t think he’s capable of being the current starter, but he is pretty comfortably outplaying Andre Drummond right now and looks like a better fit for what they need to build with the backups. Maybe don’t play him with all three of Lowry, Gordon, and Maxey on the floor, though.)