Joel Embiid drops triple-double in Sixers' close win over Mavericks

Joel Embiid scored the game-clinching bucket to prevent a backbreaking defeat in his return game, leading the Sixers to a 118-116 win over the Mavericks. Embiid had 29 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists for a triple-double, with Tyrese Maxey adding 33 points and 13 assists of his own.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— We had not seen Joel Embiid for a full month before his return on Tuesday night, and you’d be forgiven for wondering what the heck he was going to look like after an extended hiatus. He has often returned in poor shape with poor discipline, failing to feel doubles and barreling into traffic. There were some bad, errant passes against the Mavericks, but this was a decisive version of Embiid that should be able to fit into a free-flowing offense moving forward.

If anything, Embiid was a little too unselfish early on, throwing a turnover past Kelly Oubre when he had an open midrange jumper in the middle of a Mavericks zone possession. But that was largely a good instinct to see from Embiid, who moved the ball away from pressure and found open shooters and cutters all over the floor. Getting him to trust his teammates enough to make those reads consistently has been a long-time struggle for the Sixers, and he did a nice job of it in his first game back, hitting quick passes for open threes even if they didn’t go down. When Embiid plays that way, it also sets him up to pursue more offensive rebounds near the basket, where his size and strength can be a devastating weapon even if his explosiveness is behind where it used to be.

When hunting his own offense, Embiid had a nice combination of midrange mastery and power moves around the rim. He set up along the baseline for a few dunker spot possessions in the first half, spinning around or through some weak Dallas defense to get all the way to the rim for buckets or fouls. He has always made light work of Daniel Gafford dating back to his time in Washington, and Embiid hit him with a full platter of moves — midrange jumpers, spin moves going right, and big boy post moves that Gafford has no chance to stop.

But if there was any worry that Joel Embiid’s return was going to throw Tyrese Maxey off and stop his recent hot streak, that was squashed in the first half of Embiid’s first game back. Maxey had plenty of runway to continue crushing opposing teams without the pressure of being the center of the universe on every single possession. It did force Maxey to slowplay the start of the game more than he has lately, playing setup man and running through dribble handoffs with the purpose of finding a soft spot for the big man. But that brought back a dynamic we became familiar with last season. Once Embiid hits the bench, it is all guns blazing for No. 0. He is going to the rim, he is hunting threes, and he is putting belt to ass no matter who you throw in front of him.

And it sure is good that he can do that, because whenever Maxey was off of the floor, Philadelphia’s guard play was about as bad as it gets. The contrast between the Jackson/Dowtin combo and Maxey by himself could not be more stark. Maxey’s speed capitalizes on space in a way no one else on the roster can, whether it’s space provided by Yabusele’s floor spacing or space provided by a crushing Embiid screen.

We were reminded in the fourth quarter that oh, yeah, the synergy between Embiid and Maxey can be pretty damn special. Amid a mini Sixers run early on in the fourth, Embiid came over for a dribble handoff with Maxey, throwing a between-the-legs pass to Maxey behind him while walling off the chasing defender. Dallas had no chance to get a clean contest on the shot, and Maxey canned the open three to a huge roar from the crowd.

When the chips were down and Maxey struggled to connect from deep, the Sixers did what they so often have over the last eight years — they threw it to the big dude near the hoop. Turns out, that’s still a pretty good option.

— A one-game sample against a shorthanded Mavericks team isn’t telling us much, but you can see that there was some thought and purpose behind Yabusele starting and playing the bulk of his minutes at the four. He wasn’t just out there standing still and hoping for catch-and-shoot opportunities playing off of Embiid, he was involved in actions meant to use the threat of Embiid to get Yabu touches at the rim.

Philadelphia used one of those to get Yabusele three different layups at the rim, with Embiid playing the part of high-post passer to feed his partner under the hoop. Yabusele isn’t called the Dancing Bear for nothing, and the Mavericks looked like they were wrestling a bear trying to keep him from sealing his defender, with Yabusele coasting to a fairly easy 19 points as the release valve.

As importantly, Yabusele was able to use the attention paid to Embiid to be a more effective defensive rebounder. That has been a struggle for Yabusele for most of this season, so it was a welcome development on Tuesday. And he got the big defensive stop on Naji Marshall in clutch time, validating the decision to give him the starting and closing opportunity.

— Justin Edwards’ offensive instincts are going to keep him in the league for a long time, I think. If you strip away the shooting results and just look at how he’s getting his shots, he is the sort of player coaches will find a way to open up time for. I don’t even recognize this guy after watching him struggle through the Summer League and most of his only season at Kentucky.

It’s all simple, compact actions. The quick release is a perfect fit for a team that needs confident shooters all over the floor, and he adds good relocation instincts on top of that. Edwards has already shown a knack for sliding into the right space when a teammate gets trapped or dribbles themselves into trouble, which will serve him well in bigger moments down the road.

And boy, do the youthful legs help, because he made a game-saving effort in transition defense to keep this one alive in the final two minutes. What a story!

— What the heck has gotten into Ricky Council IV? Could we make an argument that he played the most meaningful one-off game in the history of the G League? Ever since his return from Delaware, he has transformed into a genuinely useful (and purposeful) role player. Good passing, good standstill shooting, and mostly good decision-making.

The Bad

— For most of this season, the Sixers have been a pretty good, if slightly erratic defense. They were implementing a big defensive piece and playing Guerschon Yabusele at the four, which is his natural position but a relatively unproven concept on this team, so you would understand some miscues and communication mistakes. But this was a trainwreck performance, one that allowed a shorthanded Mavericks team to score almost at will.

Philadelphia’s complete inability to get matched up in transition has been a problem for periods of this year, and it is infuriating to watch play out every time. The Sixers have gotten away from crossmatching in recent weeks, trusting Tyrese Maxey to guard his assignment and leaving everyone else in place, but they went back to it in small-guard lineups with Reggie Jackson alongside him. One problem — those guys executed those pass-offs terribly, with the Mavericks leaking out and stepping into wide-open threes as Philly tried to sort it out. On one possession late in the first half, Maxey ran away from Max Christie long before Jackson had a chance to get over on him, and Christie ended up stepping into a wide-open three off of made free throws for Philadelphia. That should be borderline impossible.

It wasn’t a whole lot better in the halfcourt. The big fella was not much help on the back end, certainly not in the first half. Though I thought Embiid ran the floor well enough and deflected some passes in his direction while running back in transition, you could tell he hasn’t played the cat-and-mouse game in the pick-and-roll in quite a while. Dante Exum was getting to the rim over and over again in the first half, with Embiid not positioning himself well between the Aussie guard and Daniel Gafford. Though he hasn’t been at his best-ever form on that end in his limited minutes this year, that has been the stronger end for Embiid, so this was a bit of a surprise.

To give the Sixers at least some relief, I think you could chalk up some of the halfcourt issues to Embiid’s return, and not because he was that catastrophically bad. There was clearly a bit of hesitation and confusion about what they were playing and when, and their coverages were not just different when Embiid was on the floor, but based on whether Yabusele was at the four or not. That adds a level of complication they haven’t dealt with basically all year, let alone during this undermanned stretch.

Should it have been that bad? Of course not. But I can understand why it was.

— Reggie Jackson and Jeff Dowtin, I will see you never, my guys.

The Ugly

— Make. Your. Freaking. Free. Throws. It’s usually not Embiid we have to complain about on this front, but he was a mess at the stripe on Tuesday and left the door open for Dallas as a result. Come on, man.