Tyrese Maxey, Paul George shine in Sixers' win over Hornets

The Sixers got a much-needed win over the Hornets on Monday, riding Tyrese Maxey and Paul George to a 120-108 victory on the road in Charlotte. George’s 33 points are a new Sixers high for the veteran wing, with Maxey pouring in 40 points of his own.

(The NBA’s box score says the final score was 121-108, which conflicts with the broadcast, so blame NBC if they screwed it up.)

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— The only way the Sixers are going to survive and thrive with Joel Embiid and Jared McCain on the shelf is by getting star-level performances from Paul George and Tyrese Maxey. Monday’s outing was a good start for both guys, who badly need to find some consistency with Philadelphia’s season on the brink.

To get Maxey going, it all started with getting him off of the ball a bit. His first make of the game came with George running the offense and the smaller guard flying around an Andre Drummond screen, rising into a three from the trail spot to open his account for the night. As is often the case for great scorers, it only took that one make to instill confidence in Maxey, who quickly turned one three into five makes by halftime.

Once the confidence is flowing, Maxey is a very difficult player to stop. He will pull up anytime, anywhere, and he’ll have a good chance of making the shot:

The in-between game, though, was as encouraging to me as the barrage from deep. Early in the first half, Maxey beat a loose Charlotte closeout and deliberately pulled up from midrange, knocking down a rhythm jumper off of just a couple of dribbles from the three-point line. That would be part of a deliberate attack from the intermediate areas, with Maxey reading what the Hornets gave him to eat them alive on two-point jumpers and runners.

Maxey showed better control of the offense than we’ve seen in most games this season. Rather than driving at full speed and careening out of bounds or into bodies, he mixed his speeds well, blowing past defenders on the initial move before slowing to assess the situation. It didn’t ultimately lead to much playmaking for Maxey, but he constantly found high-quality looks for himself, which has been one of the big differences between this season and last for him.

— For whatever issues George has had as a shotmaker this season, he has brought his hard hat on defense every night. He has been one of their most consistent players on that end of the floor whenever he’s available, closing down space and popping into lanes at the perfect time to dislodge opposing drivers.

That has made living with the offensive ups and downs more palatable, but when it all comes together for him, it makes the shooting success feel that much better. You watch PG go down on one end and sink a shot over a smaller defender in the mid-post, and then he’s leading a transition run out moments later by slapping the ball away with a well-timed stunt. George didn’t get credited with forcing any turnovers in Monday’s first half, but his timing and size were a major factor in clunky Hornets possessions, with errant passes and aimless dribble moves made to get away from George.

The shooting, though, is what will draw the most eyes. And rightfully so — George arrived with a reputation as one of the league’s premier shotmakers, and he has not come close to living up to that yet. Monday was another reminder of what the ceiling looks like, with George just killing the Hornets from all over the floor. He made a shot or two that defied belief, with Charlotte defenders hanging all over him as George dropped in another three points as if he didn’t see a man within 15 feet of him. The first make from this clip showcases an absurd level of skill:

Charlotte’s inability to stop either lead Sixers guy should give you pause before overreacting, but as George puts some more reps in and gets his legs under him, you’re also seeing the burst come back a bit, too. When he has gotten matchups against big men in recent weeks, George has made light work of them in space, getting all the way to the rim for layups and drop-offs.

This game was all about the stars for Philly. Two 30-point games from PG and Maxey were almost all they needed to get this one over the line, and George’s first 30-point outing as a member of the Sixers will offer some hope as they prepare to enter a difficult stretch of the schedule in late December and early January.

— Kelly Oubre continues to show out and show up on defense night after night. His offense would have to get pretty wild for him to get bumped down the rotation, and he hasn’t been anywhere close to that lately.

A quick snapshot of how hard he played on the defense:

Oubre has filled up the box score in recent games, making a consistent impact on the glass while looking to get teammates involved (sometimes) as a playmaker. Monday was just one shy of yet another double-digit rebounding game for Oubre, and they’ll take every one of those that they can get. I’m not sure what clicked for him, or if the coaching staff had any sort of conversation with him, but he is in a great run of form and mirroring the play that earned him a second contract with Philadelphia.

— There are plenty of games where Andre Drummond’s rebounding numbers have been good on paper but misleading on impact. This was a night where I thought you felt his size and approach merge to leave his mark on the game. The Hornets punished Philadelphia’s lack of size when Drummond was off the floor, and he did a good job of walling them off every time he was out there.

— Three made threes from Eric Gordon in a single quarter! That happened!

The Bad

— The Hornets did not play well for most of the game, turned the ball over constantly, and shot poorly for a lot of the night. So of course, Charlotte made this a six-point game with nine minutes left after opening the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run.

The Sixers added insult to injury by calling a timeout after that initial Hornets run and then immediately turning it over on the ensuing inbounds play.

— I’m a card-carrying member of the Guerschon Yabusele believers club, but this was not the game for him. The Sixers got killed on the glass when he was in over Drummond, and he was way too hesitant to hunt his own offense when shot opportunities presented themselves. Has to be better.

— Somebody get the Coach Kyle sticker back on Lowry’s gear immediately.

— KJ Martin dribbling into space, staring down a wide-open 14-foot jumper, and immediately turning around to go back to the perimeter was peak comedy. Like Homer Simpson retreating back to the bushes.

The Ugly

— It feels like it should be impossible for the Sixers to be as bad as they have been on challenges. I am not exactly sure who is supposed to be responsible for giving Nick Nurse the thumbs up to call timeout and take it to the monitor, but if they were this bad at deciding on green lights as a driver, they would be banned from operating a car forever.

But I could forgive the Sixers for just losing challenges if the process behind their challenges was sound. The NBA’s logic on some of the overturns (or lack thereof) is goofy enough to forgive Nurse for getting some wrong. The problem is that he appears to respond irrationally to calls he doesn’t like and gets caught in the heat of the moment, and he ends up challenging plays that have minimal impact on the outcome of the game.

Take Monday, for example. Nurse decided to use and lose his challenge on a block/charge call on Kelly Oubre in transition early in the second quarter. The ultimate upside of overturning that call is minimal, but it’s the sort of semi-meaningless call Nurse constantly decides to use his single challenge on. They have coaching clinics for other things, maybe they should start one for challenges.

— Eric Gordon and Kyle Lowry playing at the same time in any game in the year 2024 onward is not going to cut it. If your goal is winning, anyway.

— Make your goddamn free throws!