Sixers battle valiantly but fall short vs. Rockets

Tyrese Maxey had a big second half to pull the Sixers within reach of another win, but the Houston Rockets emerged with a 122-115 victory to move Philadelphia to 3-14.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— I did not think this was an especially good Tyrese Maxey game through 2.5 quarters, and the contrast between his style and McCain’s highlighted issues Maxey has been running into all year.

Maxey’s downhill at max speed approach can lead to some beautiful stuff around the hoop, of course, but McCain’s slower, more probing style has led to better looks on kickouts and drop-offs, with the Duke product waiting out the opening instead of trying to force shot opportunities that aren’t there. Teams have generally figured out the formula for stopping Maxey: overplay his drives to the basket, forcing him into deciding between kicking to underperforming open shooters or tough runners and floaters around the paint. Maxey is living on an unhealthy shot diet, but he’s also making poor decisions about when to call his own number and when to look for another target.

But that melted away in the fourth quarter, with Maxey putting his head down and pummeling the Rockets at the rim. Houston tried to play up on him and take away the threat of the jumper, and that made keeping him away from the basket uber-difficult for a sturdy but slow defender like Fred Van Vleet. Philly did a good job of freeing Maxey from the likes of Thompson and Tari Eason, and once he created even a little bit of separation from Van Vleet, the Rockets were in a tough spot at the rim. Even as he felt shortchanged on calls, Maxey kept attacking, and eventually, the results started to turn in his favor.

Whatever issues Maxey has in the creation department, he and McCain share a level of relentlessness that is admirable even on the off nights. Not many guys can get to a point in the game where they are 10/25 from the field and still keep going, still keep charging into help defense at the rim. And with the Rockets nursing dead legs at the tail end of a back-to-back, locked in their second overtime game in as many days, it was Maxey’s speed that eventually pushed Houston’s defense to its limit in the fourth.

I loved the spirit of this second half, and they will need much more of that to have a chance to win games with or without the other stars.

— Ricky Council IV and KJ Martin each have a shortlist of problems you have to work through to get them in the rotation. Martin needs just about the perfectly open look to get a three-point attempt up, which kills their ability to preserve spacing, and Council is prone to mental mistakes on the defensive end that are hard to make up for. But the competition isn’t exactly fierce at the backup spots, and I would rather play both of them and live with their issues than see another minute of Eric Gordon this season.

That comes down to a very simple belief — you win with young legs and athleticism in the regular season, and the Council/Martin combo has that in spades. There was a moment in the first half where Houston’s Tari Eason came barrelling down the floor in transition and barreled into Council IV, moving him back at least a foot or two with a shoulder to his chest. But Council was able to recover and rise for a block on the ensuing shot attempt, drawing cheers from the crowd.

It was just one example of the difference these guys can make over, for example, Gordon or Lowry. Martin drew the taller Jabari Smith Jr. on a post-up attempt and stonewalled the lottery pick so badly that the Rockets went away from that side of the floor entirely. Martin was a danger man from the dunker spot for much of the first half, waiting patiently for his opportunities and mixing it up for rebounds if those didn’t come. Let’s just pretend the last quarter and overtime didn’t happen for him.

The older vets aren’t shooting well anyway, so give me the athletes who will play hard any day. Nurse must have seen the same thing because Gordon was a DNP-CD in the second half. Progress, or something.

— Guerschon Yabusele got a small “MVP!” chant while at the free-throw line in the first half. It is truly beyond belief that this is where we are at this season. That’s no diss of Yabusele, of course, who continues to be a bright spot after being signed late in the offseason following a brilliant Olympics run.

Yabusele continues to help foster better offense by doing the little things: setting good screens, relocating, and moving the ball. But he has also somehow been one of their most consistent shooters, which few expected coming into the season. Like many other teams this year, Houston gave Yabusele a fair amount of space on the perimeter, and the Frenchman made them pay for it.

Whatever he has lacked in foot speed and rim protection skills, Yabusele has tried to make up for with effort on the defensive end, and there is a level of passion he shows night to night that is inspiring for a win-starved team. He forced a Rockets turnover with a blitz in the first half and let out a guttural scream, clearly sensing how badly they needed every single energy play he could muster. Yabusele was also a force on the offensive glass late, taking advantage of a fatigued Houston outfit.

Frankly, it was a good night for the starting frontcourt across the board. Andre Drummond has rarely been in the good books this season, but this was pretty easily his best game of the year. Nick Nurse spent a good chunk of the pregame presser talking about Houston’s Alperen Sengun, a highly skilled operator from the middle of the floor. And Drummond did his best to completely neutralize him, playing some of the most inspired defense we’ve seen from him this season.

The Bad

— I came away encouraged by this performance from Jared McCain despite poor shooting numbers because he found ways to problem-solve against a team designed to make his life hell. I will live with bad results and good process for a rookie.

Despite some tough pressure defense from Houston’s top defensive guys, mainly Amen Thompson, he did well to carve out space for himself inside the arc. In fact, I thought there were flashes of some advanced foul-drawing technique in this game despite a relatively low free-throw number. McCain had a drive in the third quarter where he burrowed into Thompson’s chest before getting to his patented scoop layup, a move that highlighted the contact when Thompson reached in and put him on the line for two freebies.

That said, bad shooting is bad shooting, and he never quite found the range in this one. McCain also had a costly turnover in overtime, with the Rockets wearing him down after four-plus quarters of physical torture.

— Aside from that, there was not a lot to complain about in this one, honestly. Good team effort with better offensive cohesion and defensive synergy.

The Ugly

— Getting beaten up in overtime by a team playing their second overtime game in two nights is, well, suboptimal.

— Make your damn free throws, fellas.

— I’m not sure why Nurse abandoned Drummond at the start of overtime. Sengun carved up Yabusele with the game on the line and showed the difference between having real size on the floor and not.

— Kelly Oubre is not playable if he can’t hit threes. Teams are just free-roaming off of him whenever they feel like it this season, confident he can’t make them pay. A brutal game for him in a season filled with them.