Paul George knee injury spoils Sixers win over Hawks

The Sixers coasted to a fairly easy 104-89 win over the Hawks on Monday night, but the preseason victory was marred by a Paul George knee injury that ended his night in the second quarter.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— I’ll be honest, I didn’t think this was a particularly inspiring game for the Sixers despite Philly leading for most of the night.

It’s likely I will write a version of this sentence 50 times this year: Caleb Martin is my type of role player. He shoots when he’s open, moves the ball quickly and purposefully when he’s covered, and is an engaged defender on and off the ball. Getting him at the price they did might turn out to be one of the great steals of the offseason.

Martin was moved to the bench in favor of Eric Gordon on Monday, and with Martin as one of the key men in that second unit, the backups calmed the game down and pulled Philadelphia out in front after a tough start. Paired with former Heat teammate Kyle Lowry, Martin was a huge part of that, flashing active hands on defense and great floor sense on the other end. He was far from perfect, but he’s exactly the sort of guy I want as a fourth/fifth starter between the stars.

You’re already starting to see the impact of having several competent, switchable wings in the lineup at basically all times when they’re healthy. Between Martin, George, Oubre, and even K.J. Martin, the Sixers were able to funnel drivers into a second line of defense throughout the game, bringing drivers to a stop before other help arrived. One noteworthy example — Kyle Lowry was able to come up with a rare block from behind in the second quarter thanks to timely help defense from K.J. Martin under the basket.

Speaking of: I would file KJ Martin’s preseason under solid but unspectacular, which is an upgrade over where he was last year. This was his best game yet. The other Martin’s challenge has been turning his nuclear athleticism into actual productivity, and he did a nice job of that against Atlanta. Surrounded by Hawks players in the paint, Martin poked out a couple of tough offensive rebounds and finished repeated lobs from his teammates. When he played deep into the game with guys further down the pecking order, he continued to stand out and make plays as a more featured player.

As it stands, Martin appears to have the inside track on the final spot in the rotation as we get closer to opening night, and I think he has earned it based on what we’ve seen on the floor so far.

— Guerschon Yabusele played the five on Saturday night and looked completely unequipped to play that position moving forward. With better depth around him against Atlanta, he looked a lot closer to what they need at the third-big spot. He did a decent job of cleaning the glass, slid his feet well in space against bigs, and had far fewer moments where he ended up out of position compared to the previous game.

Yabusele also hit a pair of threes against Atlanta and has shown at least passable confidence as a shooter to start his Sixers career. He is playing way more true center than I would have expected coming into the preseason, and while the shooting is a bonus from the five spot, it will be essential for him to work as a partner to Embiid or Drummond in the frontcourt. So far, so good.

The Bad

— I’ll start with the positive for Tyrese Maxey. In terms of dictating how the Sixers want to play, I thought Maxey did an excellent job of leading this group. Anytime there was an opportunity to run and push the pace, Maxey was sprinting up the floor as an outlet, dribbling past players himself, or making the necessary hit-ahead pass to a streaking teammate. With Nick Nurse preaching pace as a focal point for the Sixers in camp, no one can lead by example better than their point guard.

And while I remain skeptical of Maxey the playmaker, I thought we saw plenty of good stuff in this game. Nothing earth-shattering in the halfcourt, but he made some nice passes through traffic and played at a controlled pace as he tried to work other guys into the game.

This was a good example, on the other hand, of the learning curve Maxey still has to go through as “the guy” on offense. The Hawks committed a lot of bodies to make sure he couldn’t get clean looks at the basket, and Maxey overcompensated a bit with pull-up shooting, rising up from parking-lot range a couple of times too many during a cold night. Atlanta also did an effective job of walling him off at the rim, forcing him into low-percentage runners and floaters.

It’s okay for a 23-year-old to be a work in progress as the main guy. He will have games as the No. 1 option where he burns the nets down and makes the right decision on 95 percent of plays, as we’ve seen in the past. This just wasn’t one of those nights, and playing off of Joel Embiid is part of what makes the magic possible on a consistent basis.

— Jared McCain had a good offensive run in limited second-half minutes. He also committed three fouls in about 45 seconds in the fourth quarter, so there’s that.

The Ugly

— Paul George was having a decent night at the office on Monday, hitting a couple of smooth pull-up jumpers to go with generally competent perimeter defense. And then this happened:

George checked out of the game at the next possible opportunity, and the Sixers ruled him out for the rest of the game at halftime after they had a look at him. We’ll have to sit tight and see how severe the injury is, but the Sixers confirmed that it was a knee hyperextension before the game had even ended.

That is, needless to say, not what you want in a meaningless preseason game. If you needed any more evidence of why Joel Embiid is being spared from playing in these games, here you go. Fingers crossed that it wasn’t especially serious, as there isn’t much time to get him right before the real games begin.

— In two games using their “Plan A without Embiid” lineup, the Sixers have not exactly blown the doors off of the competition to start games. This is still a group figuring out how to play with one another and mostly living (read: mostly dying) on the talent of Maxey and George. Without Embiid, there is a power vacuum to fill and the Sixers have two role players who might try too hard to do so.

By the time the first quarter ended, Kelly Oubre had more shot attempts than any Sixer not named Tyrese Maxey, and he added to those shots with some aimless cuts into traffic and a bad turnover or two. It’s one thing to “let Kelly cook” when he actually has it rolling, but there’s no real reason to tolerate second-option Oubre when he’s sputtering through a cold stretch and not playing with any real inspiration on the other end of the floor.

In a role where he’s a 15-20 minute per game guy spelling someone like Joel Embiid, I think Andre Drummond is going to be a super-impactful sub. On the nights when he has to play 30+ minutes and assume more responsibility on both ends of the floor, I think you will probably see why he dropped from the tier he was at early in his career to the super-sub spot he occupies now. His rebounding and size were sometimes helpful during Monday’s game, but that was offset at least somewhat by Drummond barreling into traffic off of his own dribble. They’ve apparently trusted that he can be a consistent short-roll decisionmaker, which is probably not how I’d try to use the skills on offense he does have.

Nick Nurse tends to use the early part of the season to let guys do and try a lot of things before reeling them back in and putting players in more specialized roles. It’ll be tougher to do that with Oubre than Drummond, but I’m keeping my eye on this over the first month or two of the year.

(Also, I am not opposed to Eric Gordon starting because of his ability to space the floor. He was simply okay on both ends of the floor, which isn’t a bad outcome for your final guy in the lineup. But I think Martin is a better guy to have with the top group than Oubre if you’re swapping one of them out for Gordon.)

— A clock malfunction five minutes into a preseason game should be grounds to cancel the game. I’m only half kidding.