Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain struggle in frustrating loss to the Nets

The first quarter ended with the Nets double teaming Paul George 30 feet from the basket to get the ball out of the nine-time All-Star’s hands. George swung the ball to Kyle Lowry, who then found Eric Gordon wide open in the top left wing in the soft spot of Brooklyn’s zone.

Swish.

The play itself was seemingly big in the moment, as it tied the score at 27 with 16 seconds left to play in the quarter. With how much the Sixers struggled in the second half, that moment of importance was fleeting. But the play was notable for another reason: it signaled just how far the Sixers would have to dig into their bench in this one.

In a season that has been defined by guard play, the Sixers got almost nothing from the position tonight. VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes were both ruled out before the game due to illness. Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain were both present, but struggled mightily.

With all that time in the rotation to fill, head coach Nick Nurse turned to Eric Gordon and Kyle Lowry for 17 and 10 minutes, respectively. At one point in the first half Nurse had a lineup of Gordon, Lowry, Paul George, Justin Edwards and Andre Drummond, which unofficially (I haven’t checked, going purely on vibes) is the oldest lineup the NBA has seen in a decade.

The result was pretty disastrous, with a 114-106 home defeat to the Brooklyn Nets, who came into the game with just eight wins on the season.

Even still, I don’t take too much away from this game. When you’re out Edgecombe and Grimes, and Maxey has unquestionably his worst game of the season, and Jared McCain can’t throw the ball in the ocean, you’re liable to lose to anyone, even a bad team like the Nets.

“If you’re not shooting well from three it’s kind of hard to get the right spacing because the defense collapses on everything,” Joel Embiid said after the game. “They made 17 threes. I don’t even count the last three threes we made, the game was over by then. We only made basically four threes the whole game. It’s kinda hard winning like that.”

Maxey’s allowed a stinker every now and then, especially given how consistent he’s been in a season of constant change and turmoil. The timing of the stinker stunk, but it means little in the grand scheme of things.

Which puts me in a weird position.

This was a wildly frustrating game, especially in the third quarter, after Embiid went down with the knee scare and while Maxey and McCain floundered their way on repeated empty drives to the rim.

Yet I come away encouraged.

Part of that encouragement comes from the fact that they showed life in the fourth. After a Tyrese Maxey pick-six gave him a rare easy bucket, after Embiid found Bona for a lob, and after Embiid went flying into the stands to save a ball, the newly-renamed Xfinity Mobile Arena showed signs of life.

The team had momentum. The team, for perhaps the first time tonight, was interesting.

It would wind up not being enough, as digging yourself into a big hole through the first 3.5 quarters is typically tough to come all the way back from, but it was at least a competitive response.

But the main reason for the encouragement is that Joel Embiid, once again, looked good physically. Perhaps the best he’s looked all season.

A couple of plays stood out.

Early in the first quarter, Maxey and Embiid went into their DHO game, as they are wont to do. In this instance, Embiid faked the DHO and drove to the rim. Whether or not you think that’s the right play from a basketball standpoint is immaterial. The key is it shows a level of confidence as a driver, a level of confidence in his knee, that he simply didn’t have earlier in the year.

In the second quarter, Embiid tried to dunk. That’s notable because, well, he hasn’t converted a dunk all year, which is pretty remarkable given he had 106 in the 2018-19 season, before injuries started sapping away his athleticism. But it wasn’t just, like, a dumpoff. He tried to elevate over someone and dunk through them. Again, the confidence mattered more than anything.

Then, of course, was the aforementioned jump into the crowd, which came after Embiid had a minor scare after hyperextending his knee earlier in the third quarter. Embiid would briefly head back to the locker room before coming back later in the quarter.

Individually, Embiid was electric in the first half. He posted up. He used the face-up game more than he has most of the season, which resulted in trips to the free-throw line. He hit his only 3-point attempt of the night, and his first corner 3 of the season. When all was said and done he ended up with 27 points on 13 shots in 31 minutes of play, to go along with six rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.

Embiid scored 27 points on 13 shots and the Sixers were a +1 in his 31 minutes of play. The rest of the team scored 79 points on 68 shots and were -9 in 17 minutes that Embiid was on the bench.

It felt like a vintage Embiid game. In part because he was seemingly trying to carry the team as the only offensive option who was present in this one. But it also felt like a vintage Embiid game because not only was the production there, but the movement looked better than it has all year, and perhaps as good as it has since that ill-fated Kuminga fall nearly two years ago.

“I feel like body wise, some of the main issues coming into the season, my body feels pretty good,” Embiid said after the game. “I’m moving much better offensively, and defensively I’m able to trust myself more.”

The game, in general, stunk. Maxey and McCain combined for 23 points on 6-25 shooting. In the second half, they both started to turn down quality looks from the perimeter for tough drives at the rim, which they never seemed to convert. Paul George was only marginally better at 5-14. The Sixers as a team shot 6-22 in the third quarter, with four of the six made shots coming from Andre Drummond.

Nick Nurse tried to go with a bunch of double big lineups, but Adem Bona struggled once again, picking up one (1!) defensive rebound in his 19 minutes of play. The Sixers as a team shot 41% from the field and 26% from 3-point range, losing battle from beyond the arc by a cool 30 points.

“It was our best offense for a while: tip-ins,” Nick Nurse joked after the game. It’s going to be tough to win very many games when that is the case, even against the Brooklyn Nets.

As the misses started to pile up, the Sixers started to look a step slow to loose balls. Brooklyn built momentum, and while the Sixers made a brief push to get the crowd into it, they could never get close to all the way back.

But VJ Edgecombe will come back. Tyrese Maxey won’t play very many (if any) games that bad from here on out. Kelly Oubre Jr and Quentin Grimes are key, top-of-the-rotation pieces. Their presence will be felt. And if all of that holds true and Joel Embiid continues to trend in the right direction, as he has been over the last few weeks, then the team could be interesting. Maybe not great, but interesting nonetheless.

Burn the tape. Move on. Enjoy the holidays.

Quotable

“We missed three athletes. Other than Tyrese, that’s our speed right there. Q, explosive. Barlow, athlete. VJ, athlete. I think we missed that. All three of them. And I think it made it hard for Tyrese not to have his other guy out there to crack into the paint a little bit and do some of the things that VJ does.” – Nick Nurse.

“I just wasn’t good. I didn’t get in rhythm. I didn’t feel like I was in a rhythm…I gotta be better. That’s all there is to it.” – Tyrese Maxey, on his off night shooting.

“We lost him a couple of times. We gotta stay on his body. We messed up switches, we missed him in transition a couple of times. That wasn’t good on our part.” – Tyrese Maxey, on Michael Porter Jr’s big first half.

“He just got free. That’s on me. That was my primary matchup…Second half I think held him to three, so I did a better job in the second half, but for him to get off to that start, that’s on me.” – Paul George, on Michael Porter Jr’s play.

“Their energy, their extra plays. Those guys have a great feel for the game…They were for sure missed, but this was a very winnable game with those guys being down, we can’t make excuses.” – Paul George, on missing VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes and Dominick Barlow.

“We’ve been playing great basketball, despite this loss tonight. I think we won the lost 6 out of 7, something like that. So we’re playing pretty good basketball. Just one of those nights. We were a little flat.” – Paul George, on the state of the team.

“I just hyperextended it, then went to the locker room and checked it.” – Joel Embiid, on heading to the locker room in the third quarter.