Instant observations: Sixers lose to woeful Nets in Brooklyn

Down Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, the Sixers lost 112-107 to the Brooklyn Nets in a lifeless outing on the road.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— No player showcases the duality of man quite like Kelly Oubre. There he is, stepping out of a wide-open three in the corner to drive into three people at the basket. There he is, making a three with a guy attached to his hip and offering a good defense of the shot. He’s a human mystery box, a walking enigma, Forrest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates come to life.

And yet, giving him the ball and letting him attack the basket is often one of the best options the Sixers have. He drives me completely insane, but when he has it rolling, let the man cook.

Coming off of an excellent closing push in the Mavericks game, Oubre had a strong follow-up in Brooklyn on Tuesday. To me, the keyword continues to be restraint — Oubre’s problem has not been inefficiency, necessarily, but identifying when (and how) to pick his spots. He did a great job of that against the Nets. Oubre’s shot selection was solid, with a balance of rim attacks and rhythm threes in swing situations. And he moved the ball when the situation warranted, picking up four assists in back-to-back games for the first time all season.

On Brooklyn’s side of things, it’s remarkable to me that anyone gives Oubre space to use his left hand. It is a high-wire act whenever he tries to drive to his right, as Oubre goes from a smooth, crafty scorer to (mostly) unable to dunk. The good news for Philadelphia is that he is still able to convince teams to defend him like a man with two hands, and every so often, he pulls a nice dunk out of the bag.

Oubre just encapsulates what it has been like to watch this team without Embiid — equal parts encouraging and infuriating. But in the last two games, he has been a standout, and he deserved better than he got from the rest of this group.

— Cam Payne looked like a guy who may have sat out if Tyrese Maxey didn’t have a concussion. He was sucking wind when he returned to the bench after just three minutes in the first quarter, with Nick Nurse pulling him to avoid overexerting Payne. But if energy was an issue for Payne, it didn’t show up on the stat sheet, because he lit the Nets up from all over the floor.

He has had a resurgence in Philadelphia, mostly because he is getting a lot of threes to drop. With Brooklyn (among other teams) forced to play him out to the three-point line, Payne has had a fairly easy time penetrating the first wave of defense. But that wouldn’t matter as much if he was getting stonewalled at the rim or throwing silly passes when the help came. Thankfully, Payne has shown a great understanding of the little man arts, and he had some smooth finishes on runners against the Nets on Tuesday.

Do I ever want to see him playing next to Lowry? Not really. But he is making it work with the shooting, and with Maxey out, I suppose there are worse options.

— The Sixers had found a productive role for KJ Martin prior to his three-game stint on the shelf, and they went back to the small-ball role against Brooklyn. I am not sure how viable it is against good teams, but Martin is certainly comfortable in the offensive role as a big. His vertical explosion makes finishing easy, he has good instincts for timing the roll, and he’s unafraid to mix it up as a rebounder, which helps create second chances when he’s on the floor.

— This was a treading water performance from Tobias Harris if I’ve ever seen one. He didn’t drown, but he wasn’t swimming, either.

Let’s create a new category for the night in his honor.

The Meh

— Tobias Harris.

There, that feels better.

The Bad

— This was a good offensive game for Kyle Lowry, who went from “impactful without making shots” on Sunday to simply making shots against Brooklyn. Can’t take anything away from him on that end of the floor.

But if a player with a worse reputation had the sort of brain cramps Lowry had on defense in this game, they would get raked over the coals. As one example, Lowry was mad about a turnover in the backcourt that he thought should have been a foul for a trip. So seconds later, he decided to put two hands on Nic Claxton’s back and fouled him as he deposited two points plus the foul. It’s the sort of frustration foul you shouldn’t take in the best of times, and this is not the best of times.

Lowry is not the guy I expect to play like a dumb ass, but that’s precisely what he did against Brooklyn.

— Buddy Hield sort of feels like a man without a country when Tyrese Maxey is unavailable. The ghost screens he’s setting for their guards don’t really have a purpose, because Kyle Lowry isn’t scaring anyone as an off-the-dribble threat anymore. The Nets were able to stay attached to Hield and never had to think too hard about the other end of the action.

I continue to think they need to run more designed offense for Mr. Hield. They ran a nice set to get Hield a three in the first half off of a Dowtin screen, so there are certainly some looks in the playbook to turn to.

The Ugly

— Was it just me, or was that one of the most nondescript games in recent Sixers history? It’s one thing when Tyrese Maxey is healthy and there to serve as our What It All Means player, but there was not a whole lot of (interesting) stuff to analyze with the lineup that was on the floor. Cam Payne and Kyle Lowry starting together? Real Jeff Dowtin Jr. minutes? Come on. The game happened, I watched all 48 minutes, and I am not sure I will remember absolutely anything from it.

Speaking of Dowtin, I get that they’re different players with different skill sets, but not sure what the justification is to give him minutes over Ricky Council IV right out the chute. Dowtin came in the game and did nothing of real note in the first half.

— Mo Bamba stinks.