Instant observations: Tyrese Maxey and Jaden Springer impress in Sixers preseason opener

A Sixers preseason game without Joel Embiid and James Harden sounded like a recipe for boredom, but Tyrese Maxey and Jaden Springer were big standouts in a 114-106 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— The thing that immediately jumped out watching the preseason Sixers was their urgency after turnovers and missed shots. Philadelphia was not exactly a breakneck transition team last season — and hasn’t been since Ben Simmons left town — and that looks like it will change quickly under Nick Nurse.

Unlike when Simmons was running the attack, this is a responsibility that will be spread throughout the team. The Sixers were down the floor quickly on every Boston miss in the first quarter, looking for hit-ahead passes, transition threes, and any sort of rim attack they could get their hands on. So far, the directive to place with pace has been met with enthusiasm, even if we have to see how Joel Embiid and James Harden respond to that call.

My favorite play of the first quarter was fairly nondescript. Tyrese Maxey got his paws on the ball in the backcourt and found a streaking Tobias Harris down the sideline, hitting him in stride with a lofted pass. Harris went right toward the basket as soon as the ball hit his hands, and he drew a foul for his troubles, marching to the line for a pair of free throws.

As Maxey and Harris were the defacto leaders of the group with the two stars on the shelf, the example they set gave everyone else no excuse but to buy in. And though there were half-court struggles for Philly at times in this one, it was nice to see them doing something aside from walking the ball up the floor.

— On the subject of Maxey, I suppose it doesn’t matter if he ever becomes a plus playmaker if he’s able to score the way he did in this game. The Celtics looked like they were in slow motion trying to keep up with Maxey, who did an excellent job of playing lead scorer without losing sight of the team concept.

(Maybe they were in slow motion, as it is preseason, but still.)

When Maxey gets to run the show by himself, you can see why some fans believe they need to hang onto him no matter who might be available for a trade. His combination of outside touch and straight-line speed is breathtaking, leaving all but the best defenders helpless when they try to stay in front of him. Al Horford looked spry for the first preseason game of the year, but Maxey got him on an island on one first-half possession and shredded him, blowing past him for an easy layup at the basket.

That’s what the Sixers need more of from Maxey — he has been indecisive at times when he has favorable matchups on the perimeter, deferring or passing out instead of going for the kill. Joel Embiid has demanded that Maxey call his own number more often, which I wholeheartedly agree with, even moreso after a showing like this.

Man defense was a problem for Maxey, understandably so against this team, but he also opened the game with some excellent help defense for a steal against Tatum and was noticeably more vocal compared to years past.

— I loved what I saw from Jaden Springer in this game after it initially looked like he might be far down Nick Nurse’s list early in the game. Checking in for the first time with about six minutes left in the first half, Springer made his presence felt immediately, mixing it up with much bigger players around the basket to secure extra possessions for the Sixers.

Springer entered the league with a strong physical base for his age, but you can see that his mind is beginning to catch up with the tools. There were well-timed rotations as an off-ball defender, smart gambles for offensive rebounds, and he just seemed to keep popping up where it would hurt the Celtics most. He even canned a trail three on a kick out from Paul Reed, a real cherry on top of everything else.

He was rewarded for that first-half stretch with a start to open the third quarter, and Springer made several highlight reel plays in a two-minute stretch. My personal favorite was his sensational block of Jayson Tatum at the apex of a dunk attempt…

…but that was bookended by a great dunk on a cut and an and-one finish that came immediately after his own offensive rebound. Preseason or not, it’s one of the best pro sequences we’ve seen from Springer since Philadelphia drafted him.

It’s hard to draw many conclusions about the rotation from this game since three of Philly’s highest-minute guys didn’t suit up at all. But Springer looks ready to leap into the rotation, and that’s a great early sign.

— Patrick Beverley was the standout among the veterans they brought in this summer, even with some silly fouls given away for no real reason. The veteran guard offered a good bit of utility for Philadelphia in this one — he offered good early defense against Jayson Tatum, got them up the floor against pressure defense, hit a catch-and-shoot three from the corner, and even scored on some self-created possessions. His runner over Al Horford in the first half drew an “Ooh!” out of me, a nice finish over a long and outstretched arm.

— Terquavion Smith is going to let it fly when he has even a sliver of daylight, and while that might not play well if he’s on the floor with a bunch of veteran teammates, I unabashedly enjoy the gunner experience.

The Bad

— Playing a free-flowing, ball-sharing offense sounds good on paper and should have plenty of positive effects for the Sixers. It also means guys are going to bite off more than they can chew because they have been given the freedom to do more.

Danuel House Jr. wasn’t necessarily bad in this game, but there was quite a lot of him trying to create off of the dribble, which led to mixed results for Philadelphia. There were a couple of ugly drives to the rim in the first half with House coming out of a DHO, balanced out only partially by a nice drive-and-kick for a Pat Bev corner three. He has voiced his excitement at the changes coming to Philadelphia and looks like a guy who has to figure out the line between playing free and overextending.

Paul Reed was another guy who fell into that category, which is as much about who didn’t play. Paired with James Harden for a lot of his best minutes last season, Reed was able to focus on what he does well instead of the freelancing that can get him into trouble. With Maxey predominantly in scorer mode, there was no one to play setup man for Reed, who took it upon himself to create. That ended about how you’d expect, with a lot of shots falling harmlessly off of the rim.

— This was the Kelly Oubre experience in a nutshell. He had some nice individual moves and cuts away from the ball, providing a bit of self-creation juice and finishing ability near the basket. Unfortunately, he was one of the few guys who didn’t get the memo on the team’s offensive philosophy, leading to some downright hilarious shots and decisions during this one.

His claim that he wanted to “stand out” rather than fit in during the final day of training camp was funny at the moment, but he is not going to have a long leash on this team if he plays the way he did on Sunday evening.

— The Sixers got up plenty of threes, but they didn’t make many of them. That will have to change in the future. #Analysis

The Ugly

— Springer took an elbow to the face from Jaylen Brown and then immediately careened into a Kristaps Porzingis screen. Ouch. Somehow nothing got called on the play while he laid at midcourt in considerable pain. Tough break, kid.

— Mo Bamba had a night to forget in Boston, capped by a brutal missed dunk in the fourth quarter. He’s expected to help more as a spacer than a finisher at the basket, but it was rough all the same.

— Congrats to Payton Pritchard on the $30 million contract he agreed to on Sunday before being asked to close out the Sixers’ two-way players and likely end-of-preseason roster cuts.