Sixers drop heartbreaker to Knicks for fourth straight loss

The Sixers battled valiantly against the Knicks on Wednesday night, falling short in their comeback bid in a 125-119 loss to New York. Tyrese Maxey led Philadelphia with 33 points.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— You can earn yourself a lot of leeway from me by ignoring whatever is going on with your shot and your offense when you head down to the other end and try to get stops. It is one of the reasons that I love basketball specifically — you do not get to stand over on the sideline and let other people try to pick you up if you are tossing up bricks on offense. It’s on you to set it aside, lock in, and try to disrupt the opponent on the other end of the floor.

The Sixers certainly did that against New York, and have frankly done it for most of the season. They were 8/25 from three on a stream of fairly good looks, and the Knicks looked to be pulling away at halftime. But Philadelphia kept coming, kept pressing, kept fighting, and they found themselves in a dogfight when the fourth quarter began.

Philadelphia’s effort was led by Paul George, who has separated himself from [Unnamed Former Sixers Forward] by remaining as engaged as possible even when his shot has been missing. George has been a disruptive help defender all season, crashing down on meandering ballhandlers anytime they come near his airspace. And he hasn’t been alone there — though Kelly Oubre has been tasked with guarding the opponent’s best offensive player most nights, he remains a threat in weakside help, as he showed on a pair of crazy recovery blocks in the second half.

Maxey’s season-long commitment to defense also showed up when Philadelphia needed it most. Jalen Brunson caught an inbounds pass hoping to get fouled and ice the game in the final 10 seconds, but an alert Maxey swooped in from behind, poking the ball away for a Sixers turnover. Moments later, he turned the corner on Precious Aciuwa and got all the way to the rim, scoring the game-tying points to send it to overtime.

In this space, we have often discussed the importance of a team’s best player setting a tone as it relates to Embiid. It’s worth noting that George and Maxey have not used their own disappointing seasons to give teammates excuses to dog it on defense. That makes a difference, even if the final results of these games don’t always reflect that. Bench players don’t have an excuse to check in and go through the motions.

There were some beautiful defensive sequences in this game, even if all of them didn’t lead to missed Knicks shots or turnovers. You had second efforts from your stars, ferocious closeouts from Adem Bona, and Justin Edwards playing (mostly) composed defense on and off of the ball. Seeing them fly around the floor to force the Knicks into three, four, or five different swing passes just to get a semi-contested shot is a reminder of what this team is supposed to be, rather than what they have been.

Their defensive work is about the only thing that has you holding onto hope that they can right this ship if they get Joel Embiid healthy and on the floor with the rest of them.

— I am growing more and more comfortable with Justin Edwards as a regular rotation player. He is going to have to work through the usual rookie growing pains on the defensive end, but the desire and tools are there. The coaching staff certainly believes that, too, based on their decision to let him defend Jalen Brunson for a good portion of the second half.

Edwards is a stark contrast to Ricky Council IV on the other end of the floor, a cool and calm operator who has stayed within himself at almost all times. He knows where his shots and spots are on the floor, and if the opportunity to attack those doesn’t present itself, Edwards moves the ball elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean he lacks for confidence — with the Sixers trailing by three and every possession critical, Edwards slid into a relocation three above the break, tying the game to draw a loud ovation from his hometown crowd.

It is as simple as this for me: Edwards provides shooting, and the Sixers need more of it. Nurse should keep rolling with him, even if it’s almost certainly a more limited role with the full roster available.

— Consider this my little bit of love for Kelly Oubre, who made a living almost exclusively as a cutter on offense while chasing down boards and flying around on defense.

The Bad

— There is no working around how bad Philadelphia’s offense has been all season. And it starts with the max contract players, both of whom have been massive disappointments as shooters this year.

There were some positive takeaways for Paul George in this game, with the veteran wing turning in another good downhill game against the Knicks after a good one earlier this season. George has had issues with his burst at times, but against a team boasting OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, George was a frequent visitor to the paint, hunting his own shots and finding solid kick-out opportunities to set up the rest of the team. And while he has rarely been able to do this all season, George marched his way to the line quite a bit on Wednesday, baiting the Knicks into reach-ins and silly fouls.

(Well, at least in the 2.5 quarters this was true. George rarely got to the paint when they needed points down the stretch. It’s what creates that feeling of every game feeling the same regardless of whether he’s good or bad as a shooter. He’s going to take the same type of shots from the same spots on the floor, and we all just have to guess if they will drop.)

Unfortunately, his shot just can’t be relied on this season. George was 1/5 from three at halftime while trying to live on a pretty tough diet of threes, and he ended the game 2/7 from deep (3/8, actually, but I don’t care about the make when the game was basically over). He is certainly capable of being a pull-up threat, but the touch has not been there for most of the season, even on the easier catch-and-shoot looks on designed plays. We can point fingers at guys not helping him out — a lot of people love the “Maxey isn’t a point guard!” argument on this subject — but he has to help himself, too. During periods of the season where he got quality looks operating off of Embiid, the results weren’t much better.

It was just as dire in the first half for Tyrese Maxey, who had far less success attacking downhill and even worse results from downtown. Maxey managed to get one lefty layup to drop on a drive down the heart of the lane in the first half, but he was otherwise relegated to a bunch of tough or fading attempts at the basket as the Knicks walled off his paths. Attempts to counter different coverages are there — Maxey continues to try to expand his midrange repertoire — but it has been a mixed bag of results, with the high-arcing makes balanced out by clunkers from 14 feet and in.

To his credit, Maxey picked himself up off of the mat and brought Philadelphia closer with some excellent work in transition and early offense in the third quarter. He had a putback of his own miss in transition, a layup on another runout, and a stepback three in quick succession, building hope that perhaps he could blow the roof off of this place. And it just never really happened for him. Maxey would finish the game 13/32 from the field for 33 points, another night where he just wasn’t consistent enough to get them over the line. The flashes and flurries are there, the want-to is there, but he has found it near-impossible to put it together wire-to-wire.

It’s probably unfair to even expect that in the circumstances, frankly. It’s just that there was a long, arguably multi-year stretch where Maxey could overcome any offensive issues by burning hot from three, and that ability has been zapped from him. Maybe that run will come at some point this season. But salvation has not lived in that territory for him this season. It would probably help to engineer more catch-and-shoot opportunities for him, but that’s a bit trickier when Maxey is the only guy on the floor who can dribble a lot of the time.

The problem for Philadelphia is that the roster is light on shooting outside of the stars. If these two can’t get shots to drop, anyone hoping to score in or around the paint has to play in a phone booth. They ought to be cautious not to swing too hard the other way and sacrifice their defensive versatility for pure shooting, but we’re also almost halfway through the year with Philly hovering near the bottom of the league on offense. Something has to give.

— It certainly doesn’t help the offense that Philadelphia’s structure leaves a lot to be desired. There are a lot of fruitless DHO weaves that move the ball side-to-side on the perimeter without creating much, if any leverage against the defense. When those initial actions are over and the dust settles, a lot of the time it’s just PG or Maxey staring down a defender, waiting out the clock before they force a difficult shot toward the rim.

— One of the reasons I have found it hard to come down too harshly on the guys who are playing is that despite all that has happened — the injuries, the nonsense, their poor record — the effort is mostly still there on the defensive end. That tends to be one of the first things to go, signaling to the world that they don’t care much about the results. But even guys who are shooting poorly are making second efforts, rotating hard, and trying to keep the team afloat with stops.

At least that’s true in the halfcourt. The Sixers are just despicable in transition defense. It has gotten so bad that you have to constantly worry about an opponent scoring off of Sixers free throws. On three different first-half possessions, the Knicks ran down the floor off of Philadelphia free throws and almost immediately got a look at the rim, with Jalen Brunson, Deuce McBride, and OG Anunoby all waltzing down the middle of the floor. There is simply no excuse for it. Half of the value of shooting free throws is bringing the game to a stop, giving you the perfect opportunity to bank some points and then get back and set your defense.

There have been plenty of times in recent seasons where you could speculate this was a product of employing Joel Embiid — he can be selective with when he runs back on the break, and he has a lot of ground to cover at his size when he’s operating near the rim. But they are lollygagging up and down the floor with a small and reasonably athletic team on the floor right now. Inexcusable.

The Ugly

— I would have rather they played for a win in regulation, frankly. Undermanned as they are, the OT favors a team more used to their top guys playing 40+ minutes.

— Adem Bona, enjoy the G League, brother. I look forward to seeing what you look like after some time and reps to develop.

— Imagine if the Sixers could have a Mikal Bridges on their team. A pretty good basketball player!

— There are not enough good and available players on this team. There is no amount of tactical nuance and wizardry to get around that.