Instant observations: Jared McCain, Sixers guards carry Philly to win over Nets

Jared McCain scored a season-high 20 points to go along with 22 for Tyrese Maxey and 19 for Quentin Grimes in a 115-103 Sixers victory over the Brooklyn Nets.

Here’s what I saw.

The backcourt grows stronger

Jared McCain shedding his bulky knee brace and playing in a lighter sleeve appears to be all it took to get him going. We’re still waiting for a true scoring explosion from the second-year guard, but every time he creates separation off the dribble is a heartening moment right now, and each game brings more of those.

The three-point shooting is a bit more volatile than I would expect out of McCain, truthfully. He is coming up way short on some of his attempts from deep as he works to establish his rhythm, his base not quite there on some of his attempts to take quick-release/no-dip threes. But McCain is starting to find his spots within the flow of the offense, including in their transition attack, finding pockets of space as Maxey, Grimes, and George push the pace off the bounce. He hit a trail three in transition during a nice run for the bench to open the second quarter, moments after completing one of their only good two-for-one possessions with a corner three at the tail end of the first.

I might be most encouraged by how he has looked moving laterally on the defensive end of the floor, which is all instincts shining through. McCain still ended up stuck in some problematic size matchups against Brooklyn, but I thought he did a good job of making the right reads and rotations, forcing the Nets to make another decision and pass responsibility along to the next teammate. That is all you can really ask him for, and the Sixers won McCain’s minutes handily as a result. If nothing else, he has a strong base, which makes him hard to move around one-on-one and allows him to chip in as a rebounder.

The Nets are horrendous, granted, but getting McCain good minutes well into crunch time is a major positive for a kid who couldn’t get more than 6-8 minutes of burn as recently as two weeks ago. Better yet, McCain was able to step up and make a couple of big plays late in this one, including a power move to the rim and a corner three as the rest of his teammates faltered. His confidence has not wavered, and bigger and better results must be on the horizon.

Elsewhere in the guard rotation, Quentin Grimes manages to have two of the worst turnovers you have ever seen every single game, along with two excellent passes/decisions in traffic to unlock the defense. It’s the damndest thing. He’s the most extreme version of a bench offense guard I can remember, able to summon microwave scoring runs out of thin air after you spent 3-4 possessions hoping he would never dribble the ball again.

It was that sort of game in Friday night’s outing in Brooklyn. For every haphazard drive into two defenders that led to a turnover, there was a lightning strike in semi-transition, Grimes splitting defenders and attacking the rim with gusto for two points. His three-point shot simply would not fall for most of this game, but he had a critical scoring stretch midway through the third quarter, holding the Nets off as they made the inevitable third-quarter run all teams go on against this team.

With McCain and Grimes both playing well enough to justify minutes, it was interesting to see Nurse go through with a four-guard lineup that included Kyle Lowry in the second half. Shorthanded though they may have been, it does appear they will have to entertain these sorts of lineups in the future once VJ Edgecombe rejoins the lineup. If four of your best players are guards, find a way to make it work.

Tyrese Maxey, in control

This was a restrained but productive night for Tyrese Maxey, who has done a much better job this season of taking what the defense is giving him instead of trying to sledgehammer through every wall in his path.

The Nets understandably tried to get the ball out of Maxey’s hands with traps throughout the game, and the Sixers’ star guard did well to wait out the pressure until he could set up a four-on-three for his teammates. Even when it didn’t lead to a Philadelphia bucket, it often led to good offense, and good process won out in the end.

Of course, you knew he was not going to be denied as a scorer for four quarters, not in the run of form he’s in currently. The Sixers had a lot of chances to hunt the Nets in early offense as a result of Brooklyn’s stinky scoring output, and Maxey picked his spots well there, slicing through soft transition defense for layups and free throws. In the halfcourt, Nick Nurse deserves a bit of credit for finding ways to get Maxey his shots without asking him to take contested pull-up jumpers on every possession. Working off of McCain and Grimes as lead ballhandlers, the Sixers got Maxey a couple of clean looks at the basket from downtown by running him around off-ball screens.

Andre Drummond’s injured knee

We don’t do reckless injury speculation around here, but Andre Drummond’s first-half knee injury sure didn’t look good. Going up for a defensive rebound alongside teammate Kyle Lowry, Drummond landed and immediately grabbed at his right knee in pain, bent over on the baseline in pain.

It created both short and long-term concerns for the Sixers. With Adem Bona their only available big for the rest of the night, Nick Nurse’s only real “center” option was a player returning from injury who is famously prone to fouling. On cue, Bona had three fouls with nearly half of the second quarter remaining, forcing Philadelphia into small-ball minutes until halftime.

This would become a theme for the rest of the game. Every other player in a frontcourt spot for the Sixers was in foul trouble at some point during this game. Bona, Dominick Barlow, Jabari Walker, and even Johnni Broome failed to defend Nets players without fouling, trying to substitute physicality for what they lacked in height. Whether jostling for rebounds out of zone looks or trying to play cleanup duty after their perimeter players got beaten, a foul was coming one way or another.

(That said, a fairly good second half from the backup bigs! — Dominick Barlow turned out to be one of the huge steals of the NBA offseason. Tremendously fun and hard-working player. And Bona, in spite of the early fouls, was all over the place as an athlete, blocking shots and dunking everything from around the dunker spot. He even hit a big corner three in the final two minutes of the game, much to the delight of Sixers fans in attendance in Brooklyn.)

The bigger concern is what comes next. Drummond has been one of their most reliable role players this season, bringing his usual night-to-night rebounding with additional floor spacing and a few impact games along the way. With Joel Embiid out of the lineup for the last 2.5 weeks with mystery knee soreness, Drummond’s ability to sop up minutes has been critical to their ability to stay afloat. A healthy Embiid shrinks Drummond’s role and influence. Even if that’s the case, Drummond made a huge impact in limited minutes early in the year as a second-half replacement for Bona in the backup role.

The vet’s ability to produce in roles big and small is what the Sixers were hoping for when they signed him last offseason, and it would be a huge blow to lose him in his current run of form. Get well soon.

Another good Paul George game

The main frustration with Paul George’s short time in Philadelphia is that he hasn’t been able to get or stay on the floor. Setting his absolutely miserable start to last season aside, George has honestly been pretty good when he is actually available. I’m not sure how much they needed him to beat this horrific Brooklyn Nets team, but he showed the inside-out versatility that made him an attractive free agent in the first place.

George’s superpower is the ability to make difficult combination moves flow from one to the next in a seamless fashion, going through crossovers, behind-the-back moves, and fancy footwork to glide past his man for a shot with pristine touch. He had several of those moments in the first half against Brooklyn, hitting bankers in traffic and baseline jumpers that touched all cotton. When he has it rolling, it’s a nice luxury to be able to dump the ball to him in a favorable matchup and believe almost any shot he gets will be good.

It sure helps when he can get some threes to drop, too, because George’s ability to keep the opponent’s attention from deep is where he makes the biggest difference compared to players who start or play in his place. Brooklyn lost sight of him for a half-beat during one fast break for the Sixers in the first half, and a quick swing to the other side of the floor from Kyle Lowry is all it took for George to step into a comfortable three. Teams never just ignore George, but seeing him make a three or two brings opponents up into his chest and creates additional driving room. He had 14 points at halftime to go with a pair of rebounds, two steals, and an assist for his troubles, making every shot he took from inside the arc.

The Ugly

— Playing Kyle Lowry real NBA minutes after refusing to play him at the end of a blowout when fans were yelling “WE WANT KYLE!” is a pretty funny bit, I’ll give Nick Nurse that. But also, I don’t want to ever see it happen again. I especially don’t want to see it if you’re going to play Tyrese Maxey 40 minutes anyway. What was the point?!

— The Nets absolutely suck, brother.