Instant observations: Sixers battle hard but fall short vs. Bucks

The Sixers led for much of Thursday’s game but ultimately came up short vs. the Milwaukee Bucks, losing 114-105 despite 30 points from Tyrese Maxey.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— Patrick Beverley, as you might expect, has had plenty to say since leaving Philadelphia at the trade deadline. And he emerged victorious in this matchup the first time around, so the Sixers surely wanted to come into Milwaukee’s house and shut their former teammate up.

Tyrese Maxey tried to do that by himself. The first two possessions of the game were mirror images of one another, with Maxey hitting two different pull-up threes from the free-throw line extended. It became clear within the first 90 seconds that Beverley was in for a long night.

Most NBA players will tell you that one hot hand can turn the whole team into snipers, and it felt like that exact phenomenon in the first half. Coming off of a pair of inept offensive performances in New York, Philadelphia badly needed a get-right game beyond the arc. After those opening Maxey threes, the rest of the gang followed suit — Buddy Hield, Paul Reed, Mo Bamba, and Cam Payne all added threes of their own before the first half was over, powering the Sixers to a comfortable halftime lead.

The Sixers have tried to tap into Maxey’s off-ball utility more and more in recent weeks, which is the basis for playing as many multi-guard lineups as they have. Beverley tried some of his usual tricks and physicality to stop Maxey from getting the ball in the first place, but he couldn’t match the younger man step-for-step, opening up plenty of attacking opportunities for No. 0. And when he had to stay in front of Maxey off-the-dribble? Forget about it.

When Maxey has the three-point shot going, it becomes impossible to try to stay with him, which the Bucks found out the hard way. There was nobody who could match him step-for-step, which made Philadelphia’s offensive approach somewhat silly at times. The Bucks were able to force the ball out of his hands by showing high against pick-and-rolls when Maxey in isolation was the best path for a quality shot on most possessions.

A strong outing for him, in any case.

— Cam Payne had revenge on his mind coming back to Milwaukee, and while he has his share of issues on the defensive end, Payne has been about as good as you can hope for offensively in Philly. He has the confidence to let it go as a pull-up shooter, which helps keep his defender honest, and his touch on catch-and-shoot jumpers makes it hard for defenders to stray from him when someone else drives. Put the two together, and you have a valuable floor-spacer, if nothing else.

With Payne as the nominal point guard, Buddy Hield was asked to run a decent bit of offense in this game, and I thought he made great use of his time and touches. Hield and Paul Reed have good synergy in pick-and-rolls, and while Hield isn’t going to give you ultra-creative playmaking, he is unselfish enough to take the easy reads and keep the ball moving. Hield was part of Payne’s success on the second unit, drawing defenders toward the paint before finding the diminutive guard on the weak side.

Of course, Payne went out and earned his buckets, too. He kissed one off of the glass for two points in the middle of his second-quarter blitz, and he was barking at his former teammates all night long, letting them hear about it following every successive make.

I’m not sure if he will remain in this rotation when everyone is healthy, but he has been a pleasant addition so far.

— Paul Reed seems to get up for the Giannis Antetokounmpo matchup, and good on him. Reed’s fearlessness can sometimes be his worst enemy, leading him to take shots and try moves that coaches can only roll their eyes at. But it is an asset in this situation when they need him to showcase a next-play mentality to battle with Giannis properly over 48 minutes.

Defending without fouling is one of Reed’s biggest challenges, particularly in a starter-sized role, but he did a great job in a hybrid role against one of the league’s best players. He kept his hands back while defending Giannis one-on-one, offered timely help when rotating in from the weak side, and came up with some sensational blocks around the rim. Giannis is a freight train few players can stop, and Reed succeeded more than he has any right to.

— Pretty good KJ Martin minutes in this one. Energy and activity were good without being out of control.

— Defense is mostly activity and buy-in, a theorem proven by the last three games.

The Bad

— The Sixers can’t keep spending this many possessions trying to get Tobias Harris going. If you’re not going to bench him or demote him from the starting lineup to send a message, then you can’t continue to play through him like he’s one of your best players. He is in a massive funk and has lost the confidence to attack effectively. All you’re accomplishing by clearing out a side for him is wasting time.

This week, a Harris-led possession has been almost a guarantee of failure. He’s so in his head that he can’t recognize when he has clear mismatches to exploit — Harris ended up with Dame Lillard on his hip and the entire baseline to attack on a third-quarter possession, and he never so much as looked to see if he could go to the basket. Instead, Harris simply stood there and waited with the ball in his hands, killing time off of the clock as his teammates waited for him to do something.

Once again, he had one of the game’s ugliest sequences:

• Harris was asked to shoot a technical free throw. He missed it.
• Harris inbounded the ball to start the possession following the tech. He picked up a five-second violation.
• Harris had a chance to score on the next possession. He missed a six-footer.

All of that being said, Harris finally found a groove in the fourth quarter of this game, hitting a bunch of shots to keep the Sixers within reach as the Bucks made their run. And so of course, he immediately rolled his ankle, because even a great Harris flurry ends in pain and suffering.

The Ugly

— It was not my favorite Oubre game and I will leave it at that.

— The Sixers don’t have a great option for point-of-attack defense, which is going to be a serious problem if they want to make noise in the playoffs. Nic Batum, god bless him, is not a 1A stopper or anywhere close in 2024.

— The officiating approach in this game was “let them play” which is fine on a general level, but the lack of respect Maxey got from the officials was genuinely insane. It wasn’t like he just hovered around the perimeter all night, with Maxey going to the paint, drawing contact, and looking around after quite a few made shots, wondering why obvious clutching and grabbing were ignored. On one shot near the end of the third quarter, it appeared he got fouled more than once, leading the star guard and his coach to shout in frustration.

On the one hand, good job playing through it on Maxey’s end. But he should not have had to. We’re not talking about a first-year guy earning respect from the officials. He’s a damn All-Star being treated like a no-name out of the G-League.