Tyrese Maxey struggles mightily in Sixers' loss to Orlando Magic

The shorthanded Sixers battled but ultimately fell short in a hard-fought game against Orlando, dropping Wednesday’s game by a 106-102 final score. Philadelphia now sits at 5-15 through 20 games, staring up at most of the Eastern Conference.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— Orlando looked well on their way to a blowout victory at the end of the first quarter, fresh off a monster run to end the opening period. They looked bigger, more athletic, and simply better than the Sixers, and it didn’t appear Philadelphia had any way to counterpunch.

In stepped Jared McCain, the rookie who has had to shoulder a ton of responsibility 20 games into his career. He was Philadelphia’s leading scorer at halftime with 13 big ones, but even more than that, he gave the Sixers a level of composure with the ball in his hands that stopped the game from snowballing. McCain made plays out of variety of different looks and against different types of Orlando pressure — a quick feed to KJ Martin rolling downhill, a kick-out to Kelly Oubre from underneath the basket, and passes out of Magic double teams as they tried to slow down the rookie.

There was some concern when McCain’s shot volume dropped against the Detroit Pistons last Saturday, with some believing that meant he was gunshy in a slump. I think it was more reflective of his willingness to hunt the best shots by any means necessary. It just so happens that it often means hunting his own shot, because this kid has been more of a three-level scorer than anyone has anticipated. McCain has done an excellent job sprinkling in midrange attempts, setting up his patented scoop and flip shots around the basket.

McCain’s polish from all over the floor is hard to fathom for a guy they stole outside the lottery. He hit a couple of touch shots from the midrange that experienced and skilled vets would struggle to even put on the rim. To close the third quarter, he showed brilliant patience from the corner on a baseline out-of-bounds play, using a shot fake to draw the blow by before sidestepping into a three to tie the game.

On a lot of nights this year, he has been their best player, full stop. That’s a wild thing to think about a rookie playing with so many vets and (occasionally) multiple stars, but it’s true.

(And not to belabor the point, but doesn’t it seem even crazier that Kyle Lowry got minutes over him in the fourth quarter against Charlotte?)

— In a world where Jared McCain didn’t exist, Guerschon Yabusele would be the best story of Philadelphia’s season by a pretty wide margin. After a half-decade in Europe to refine his skills, the French forward leaped back to the NBA late in the offseason, only to immediately assert himself as a must-play rotation guy no matter who is healthy for the Sixers.

Tuesday’s game vs. Charlotte was more about the hustle plays and rebounding than anything else, but Yabusele brought some important offensive juice against a Magic team that sucks the life out of most offenses. He was one of the few players able to get legitimate mismatches against Orlando’s legion of long athletes, with the burly Yabusele taking a few Magic players to the weight room on drives to the hoop.

The limitations of playing Yabusele at center are not going away, so it has been great to see him succeeding next to all of their centers in recent weeks. Wednesday featured some Bona/Yabusele minutes in the frontcourt that brought a notable uptick in paint protection skills, with Philadelphia able to force more kick outs into contested Magic threes than they could with either player operating by themselves. Not sure why Nurse decided against playing that bigger look in the second half, but alas.

— The difference between disciplined Kelly Oubre and wild man Kelly Oubre could not be more stark. It is a shame that it all seems to happen at once or not at all for him, but I am a big fan of the guy they got in this game, and they’ve been getting more and more of him recently.

The one thing that has been consistent for most of this season is Oubre’s competitive level on defense. With a few exceptions aside, he has generally competed hard and tried to give the Sixers a chance even when he’s stuck in matchups where he’s giving up weight or speed to the man across from him. His ability to check guys one-on-one is an important part of keeping things whole.

Oubre’s decision-making on offense, though, has been far better in recent games. There are more connective passes, more drop-offs in traffic, and he has shown genuine restraint on his shot attempts despite the absence of the big-name guys.

— Closing minutes for Ricky Council IV are a gift to me personally, and while they have to live with some wild moments from the second-year wing, I continue to love how hard he plays.

The Bad

— We are well past the point of making excuses for Tyrese Maxey’s finicky touch. He had a great closing stretch against the Hornets on Tuesday that papered over a poor night attacking the basket. And that has been the story of most good Maxey performances this year. It has been rare to get an excellent wire-to-wire game out of him, and arguably even rarer for him to make an open three.

That is the most confusing thing about the whole experience. Maxey missing tough runners and floaters around the basket is not all that surprising because teams are loading up and daring him to beat them as a playmaker. You’re not going to shoot a high percentage on looks fading away from the rim while attempting to shoot over multiple defenders. We can also forgive Maxey for not canning pull-up threes with a hand in his face, which has been a requirement late in the clock when the offense stalls out. But you should be able to cash in open looks from three if the basis for you being a max player rests at least in part on your ability to get white hot from three. And he simply hasn’t.

The efficiency numbers for this season are just what they are at this point. Maxey entered this game shooting 41 percent from the field and 32 percent from three entering the game, and both of those numbers got worse after another dreary night at the Wells Fargo Center. They needed

It’s not all on him. The Sixers have to continue trying to find ways to free him up away from the ball and hope that clean catch-and-shoot looks can finally get him going for good. But I do think this season has begun to show the limitations in his shot-creation ability. He lacks the ability to get into a midrange pull-up consistently, leaving him stuck with a lot of forced shots or junked-up possessions where he has to bring the ball back up top with less time on the clock.

This has been a really disappointing season for Maxey so far. The context has been bad, but he has to help himself first and foremost. I think he was the main reason they lost and nobody else was really worth getting mad at in this game.

It’s hard to win games when you get thrown in the dumpster on the glass. The Magic were just bigger and more athletic than this team, news at 11.

— Caleb Martin had what I felt was a pretty good defensive game, getting a bunch of deflections and making good hustle plays to create extra possessions. He was even efficient from the floor with a few nice turnaround jumpers from midrange.

But his poor outside shooting is so in Martin’s head that he actually had to look down in the corner and check to see where his feet were on a first-half possession. The Sixers were fortunate to get a bucket anyway on a Maxey runner, but they can’t afford to have possessions come to a screeching halt like that.

The Ugly

— The next time Reggie Jackson decides he should try to win in isolation against a defender of Jonathan Isaac’s caliber, the Sixers should put him on a rocket ship to the moon.

It certainly looked like the Magic could have been called for a foul on Maxey’s last-second attempt to get up a three and tie the game, but couldn’t tell from my seat if that was a “hand on ball” situation or if Anthony Black got him further up the wrist.