Joel Embiid benched for fourth quarter in Sixers’ buzzer-beater loss to Nets

Joel Embiid was benched for the entire fourth quarter of the Sixers’ 105-103 loss to the Nets, pushing the Sixers to 20-36 after a lifeless start to the game.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— Guerschon Yabusele hasn’t been at his best recently, with the power forward still readjusting to that position after spending most of the year at center. That said, I don’t have any idea why Nick Nurse has decided to relegate him to mop-up duty for most of the last few weeks. Evidently, he saw enough after the first half when Andre Drummond acted like a human traffic cone on defense, adding ridiculous reach-in fouls on top of that. Serious question: how in the world did David Roddy and Drummond get priority over him in the rotation, given that Yabusele has been much better than the latter all year? A team that tried to spin their cap savings moves at the deadline as a play to keep Yabusele has decided he is barely worth playing, I guess? That makes a ton of sense.

When Yabusele got normal minutes in the second half, he played well and the Sixers began cutting into the lead. It happened first with Yabusele at the four alongside Embiid, with the Frenchman offering some additional bulk and a bit of smarts in the frontcourt. And instead of pivoting to Andre Drummond for the Embiid-less minutes to open the fourth quarter, Yabusele slid over to the pivot. If the Sixers make anything out of this season, that run to open the fourth may have been the sequence that kept the whole thing alive.

For the first time in a while, the Sixers looked like the competitive, athletic team that they had flashed in spurts earlier this season. Yabusele helped players like Quentin Grimes and Kelly Oubre trap Nets ballhandlers, turning Brooklyn over repeatedly as they chipped away at the lead, drawing louder and louder cheers with each ensuing basket. Paul George was able to use some additional space to get to the basket and score in traffic. The whole team basically rose from the dead emotionally.

But I will be honest, everything about the second half that helped them turn this game around just made me angrier about watching the first-half disaster. They’re clearly capable of playing harder, playing better role players, and putting together coherent stretches on offense. Acting as if they are above it for an entire half is reprehensible.

The Bad

— You watched the game, right?

The Ugly

— There is a large contingent of fans who are in favor of tanking the rest of the season, making arguments that they should shut everyone down and play for as bad of a record as they can put up. At this point, I’m not sure they need to tank deliberately. Their veterans are so out of sorts and so disinterested in this season that it appears they’re going to have a chance to lose no matter who the opponent is or what the situation may be.

Brooklyn entered this game with the worst offense in the league over their last 15 games. With their two most dangerous ballhandlers out with injuries, they managed to drop 40 points in the first quarter, shooting 75 percent from the field while creating dribble penetration at will. There is not a single thing Philadelphia did well on defense. They didn’t protect the paint, they didn’t guard the three-point line well, they didn’t turn the Nets over enough, and they didn’t keep Brooklyn off of the free-throw line. On paper, they should not have issues that run this deep, but nobody is pushing in the right (or the same) direction for anything longer than a fleeting moment. Tyrese Maxey diagnosed a lack of effort and trust following their loss to the Celtics, and that shows up constantly.

The headline here is that Joel Embiid is a shell of himself right now. It is as close as you can imagine to a Space Jam “aliens zapped your powers away” situation for an elite NBA talent. He is slower than he has ever been but worse than that, I see a player with far less confidence in himself and his talent than ever. His moves aren’t purposeful and combined with the lack of closing/finishing speed, he is having to take more difficult shots or later contests than he has at any point in his career. If the window is open, it’s only slightly cracked, and he has shown little or no ability to open that thing up.

There has been an assumption built into this season that Embiid’s return would eventually get this group back on track and that he could cover up a lot of their worst flaws with his talent and two-way play. The opposite has unfolded this month. Initial dribble penetration snowballs into an open layup or a wide-open three because he either arrives late or has to overcompensate by moving out early, creating cracks for the opponent to exploit. Brooklyn showed very little fear of him on drives, and though he managed some decent contests at times, it was more likely that he’d end up three steps late on a closeout as the Nets recycled the possession.

I would argue the other end is just as bad. Something as simple as catching and holding onto the ball looks like a tall task for him right now. Maybe he was never the league’s safest pair of hands, but he is dislodged and disrupted so easily that it’s hard to establish any sense of rhythm. He either lacks the ability or the interest to attack too much off of the dribble, with Embiid hoisting a ton of threes without putting much pressure on the rim against the Nets. And I have no interest in watching him sulk and drift to the corner after not getting an entry pass from Tyrese Maxey, as he did in the first half on Saturday. It is your job to be part of the solution no matter what that looks like or how imperfect it is possession-to-possession, and showing up teammates isn’t helping. My guy, you were getting worked by Nic Claxton, a player you used to drive through the rim whenever you wanted. Save the shoulder shrugs and exasperation.

(The only thing I will say in Embiid’s defense after that game is there is still a level of desire being shown. He tore down the floor on a couple of transition defense possessions in the third quarter, nearly flying into the courtside fans on a play to end the third. There aren’t enough of those plays, to be sure, but they do exist.)

That isn’t an excuse for the rest of the group to simply fall apart when he’s on the floor, of course. Tyrese Maxey’s defense has been bad lately, with this depressing season clearly wearing on his will to battle a bit. Paul George puts together 2-3 nice off-ball plays per game and spends the rest of it with his head in the clouds. Kelly Oubre has been mostly bad for weeks. Their new guys, even if they are playing hard, often don’t know where to be or when.

But it’s hard to ignore that with Embiid on the sideline and his knee on ice, the Sixers looked like a basketball team with heart and fight for the entire fourth quarter. The lack of flow was no more, and their defensive effort was encouraging. And Nick Nurse opting to keep him on the bench to end the game is a hell of a statement on where things are at.

— Paul George gets his own mini-section. His decision-making has been as bad as almost any guy on the team during this latest funk. He’s passing up open looks at the rim and throwing ridiculous passes into traffic on offense and has brought every mental mistake imaginable to the table.

My least favorite moment of the night from George — Keon Johnson had the ball beyond the arc with four seconds left on the shot clock, and George decided that the prudent move was to lunge at the guard who entered the night shooting 28.7 percent from three. George got blown by, Embiid didn’t really move, and Johnson threw down a dunk before the shot clock expired. Brutal!