Sixers blow double-digit lead to Grizzlies after another Tobias Harris stinker

The Sixers lost to a bad and injured Memphis Grizzlies team 115-109, with the home crowd booing Philadelphia off of the floor in the moments after the loss.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— Kelly Oubre’s accomplishments have often been derided for nothing more than volume scoring (and I will certainly put myself in the group that does that, as regular readers know). Here’s the truth about the NBA’s regular season — you need volume scoring to make it through 82 games. And in a long list of imperfect options for the current Sixers, Oubre is near the top of the list.

This has been a killer week for the bench wing, who has been excellent since Nick Nurse decided to make him a focal point of the backup groups. The key feature of Oubre’s strong week has been the slashing, which has made up for any woes he has had as a scorer. Hell, the volume of drives has even made up for some poor finishing once he actually gets to the rim. Despite some rough times around the basket against Memphis, Oubre’s persistence put him on the charity stripe again and again, making up for whatever he lacked in layup-finishing ability.

With Tobias Harris seemingly happy to just fade into the background, Oubre’s aggression has been a requirement to keep the Sixers marching forward at times. And I appreciate that his form of engagement isn’t exclusively on-ball work, with Oubre willing to sprint down the floor, cut along the baseline, and go get the ball wherever it’s required.

We don’t know when Oubre might slip back into out-of-control mode, so ride the hot hand while it lasts. I don’t really blame him for not being a closer down the stretch — he was overtaxed as a result of a guy we’ll get to later, and he did more than enough in the middle of this game to warrant some assistance in the fourth.

— Jeff Dowtin Jr. had a forgettable outing in his first game with the Sixers, but thankfully he saved a much better performance for the follow-up. Philadelphia was in dire need of guard help with Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, and Kyle Lowry all out, and Dowtin was the jolt they needed from the bench.

Everything looks and feels a lot better when shots go in, and Dowtin opened his Sixers account with a pull-up three, confidently stepping into the space Memphis conceded to him on the perimeter. But the sales pitch with Dowtin is less about his shot than the blend of skills, and I thought he showed that on Wednesday night. There was a smart off-ball cut that turned into two points at the rim, a great outlet pass to earn Kelly Oubre two free throws, and great activity on defense, where he had three steals thanks to his active hands.

Whether he plays with the team at full strength is another story, but this was a good outing.

— Paul Reed was made to play in a game like this. With creative talent low, someone was going to have to go and steal this game with grit and determination. And while several Grizzlies players played with the same fire as Reed, he emerged victorious in scrums time and time again, tipping and poking and jumping for second chances until he eventually got another possession for his team.

Playing hard can absolutely be a skill, and while other guys on this team lose sight of that, Reed rarely does. This was a back-and-forth game for much of the night, but Philadelphia was able to create their first bit of separation late in the second quarter after Reed hit the deck for a loose ball and (eventually) got the ball back for two points at the rim.

If there has ever been a better example of the ball finding energy, I have not seen it.

Although Nick Nurse has often said Reed’s best games come when he focuses on his strengths, he did everything in this one. The Grizzlies left him open from deep, and he canned an early three from above the break. They showed no fear of him from midrange, and Reed decided to step into a few pull-up jumpers, punishing Memphis for the disrespect. There were probably some, “No, no, no, no, yes!” moments on the Sixers’ sideline as Reed got to his jumper, but he had at least earned the right to show off a bit.

The Bad

— It seems impossible that Tobias Harris could be a passenger in a game that was basically created from scratch to give him opportunities. Their two best players were out, their starting point guard was Cam Payne, and the Sixers were not exactly up against the Unstoppabulls. And yet, he may have had the worst first half of anybody who suited up to play for either team, showcasing a despicable blend of inefficiency and disinterest.

I completely understand that it is harder to generate threes with the group the Sixers have available right now. But there is no excuse for Harris to be as reluctant of a shooter as he is, stepping out of good looks for no good reason at all. We have discussed this quite often during his Sixers tenure, but it is worth repeating again — they do not currently have the talent to pass up quality looks, especially when you consider that he has to then create the next look after stepping out of the last one.

If there was skepticism among the fans after two good games vs. Charlotte and Dallas, it’s because of performances like this one. Harris’ cold start was enough to put him in near stasis for the rest of the game, as he hardly looked at the rim for most of the second half. And a half-decade deep into his stay, the natives are clearly sick of the disappearing act. With Harris passing out of clear scoring situations in the halfcourt and transition, the home crowd began booing Harris, with the sound only getting louder as they went deeper into the fourth quarter.

A lot of people treated this Grizzlies team as one the Sixers should absolutely beat in their current state, but Jaren Jackson Jr.’s presence serves as a great example of what the Sixers would hope to get out of the proverbial third guy on their team. On top of shouldering a big load on offense, inefficient as he may have been, Jackson kept the Grizzlies in this game and eventually pulled them over the top with defense. With little creative help to speak of, Jackson was an absolute menace as a shot blocker and rim protector, finding a way to win this game without his best stuff on offense.

I am not expecting Tobias Harris to wake up in his early 30s and be a JJJ-level defender. But that is what a big-money player is supposed to do and look like — nobody cares about the excuses, the injuries, the ailments, or if your shot isn’t falling. You have to find a way to get it done. And unlike Jackson, if Harris can’t get shots to drop, he doesn’t have a path to facilitating a victory.

— The Grizzlies have the worst offense in the league this season. They are down several of their most important players, and indisputably their two best creators. The Sixers somehow managed to give up 37 points in the opening quarter to that group. That’s a pretty good summary of where this group is at on defense right now.

Cam Payne has been better than most could have hoped for on offense. He is almost exactly as bad as you would have expected on the other end of the floor. And it’s not from a lack of effort — Payne has tried hard, hit the floor for loose balls, and mostly wants to be in the right positions to help out — but he is drawing dead out there all the same.

The Grizzlies battered him throughout the first half, hammering Payne in switches, transition cross matches, offensive rebounding opportunities, and every situation in between. At his size, there are very few rostered NBA players who can’t exploit him in some way on that end of the floor.

But I don’t want to pick on Payne too much. There are a lot of basic execution errors and too many space cadet moments away from the play, which allows any team they play to generate open looks at the rim and from three. Buddy Hield is constantly blowing assignments and mixing up what he should do with teammates. They don’t have a functional backup center, so they’ve tried to get away with playing KJ Martin as a backup big.

It’s all suboptimal, to say the least.

— Ricky Council IV looked to be on the cusp of real rotation minutes for a while, but he has had a rough go of it lately. You can blame it on the inconsistent minutes and have a decent case, but you have to actually earn those regular minutes. The inability to hit outside shots has hurt him.

— Buddy Hield was not very good. I’m going to have to do a deep dive on him at some point soon, I think. At least the three-point volume and efficiency were decent.

The Ugly

— Presented without comment:

— This game had more reviews than a playoff game would have warranted. I might go full boomer and say we need to ban replays altogether. If they get it wrong on first glance, too damn bad!