Tyrese Maxey set his new career high with 54 points in an overtime Sixers thriller, with Philadelphia outlasting the Bucks in a 123-114 roller coaster ride. Paul George supplied 21 points of his own in an excellent game for the vet wing, with VJ Edgecombe chipping in a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Here’s what I saw.
Superstar Maxey
This game might have been an absolute laugher in favor of the Milwaukee Bucks if Maxey had been ruled out with the quad contusion he carried into this game. It was a special performance from their star guard, a genuine “I will not let us lose” game where he pulled them back into the game every time the Bucks felt like they might run away for good.
All the mechanical advancements he has made over the last five years were on display against a Bucks team not exactly brimming with defensive stoppers. There was a beautiful hesitation move in the first half, with Maxey using the threat of his speed to confuse the Bucks before decelerating and exploding out of a standstill for a layup. There were outrageous runners from outside the paint, Maxey hitting nothing but net from impossible-seeming angles. And I know that some people may be numb to it at this point, but it’s hard to believe the range Maxey has as a shooter when he has it rolling. He hit multiple deep threes in this game, including a stepback three that he nailed with a heel on the logo, capping off a spectacular run that brought him to the 40-point mark for the evening:
One night after the Raptors effectively schemed him out of the game for long stretches of the second half, Maxey had apparently saved enough in the tank to find the ball from spots all over the floor. Philadelphia bought him some rest possessions in the corners with Milwaukee sitting in their zone, using their other drivers to attack the middle of the floor and find Maxey for some off-ball magic.
Frankly, the most amazing part of this performance is how he was able to keep digging deeper as we went deeper into the night to finish the game. Late in the fourth, it looked like Maxey ran out of gas at the worst possible time, coughing up two crucial turnovers in the final three minutes of the game to open the door for the Bucks. But he shook those plays off and kept delivering — there were two crucial free throws in the final 10 seconds to force overtime, and a quick layup around a minute in to earn his first 50-point outing of the season.
Even more telling was his vocal command of the team as he picked them up by their proverbial shirt collars. 42+ minutes into his night, following a Sixers stop early in overtime, you could hear him over the rim microphones barking at his teammates to run, to strike while there was an opportunity to score before the Bucks could get set. To even have the desire to run in that spot was pretty special, let alone the
It’s not that Maxey hasn’t been capable of huge scoring performances in the past, but it was the pace and timing of this game that felt different from some games in past seasons. He was dominant and shot-heavy while finding his offense through a variety of looks and sets, and he paced himself well throughout the night, saving his legs and his shots for the most important moments of the game. There are a lot of players in the league who can drop huge scoring games with no care for whether the rest of the team is coming along with them. But this sort of game is what being “the guy” looks like, knowing when to assert yourself, when to defer, and trusting that the ball will find you more often than not.
Zone defense, we meet again
There are times to get angry about big scoring runs for the other team, but the Bucks’ start to the second quarter felt relatively unearned and fluky. Milwaukee decided to use a 2-3 zone with the Sixers cooking on offense early, and it successfully pulled the Sixers out of rhythm. The Bucks opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run, turning what looked like a potential blowout into yet another barnburner. Hooray.
I didn’t think the Bucks played particularly good zone defense, mind you. The first possession ended with an open Jared McCain three, Paul George got a clean look from the opposite corner, Justin Edwards missed what felt like a dozen threes (read: four) on wide-open looks from the right wing, and so on down the list. In somewhat hilarious fashion, Tyrese Maxey was the only guy who was rolling from deep in the second quarter, and his makes vs. Milwaukee’s zone were the best-contested and toughest shots of the bunch, with Maxey even canning one with his foot on the half-court logo to the disbelief of many in attendance.
I’m all for piling on the coach when their zone offense isn’t executed well, which we’ve seen in the past with players not understanding their roles and spots on the floor. This was a much simpler, much more frustrating problem. You either hit shots, or it’s tough to beat zone consistently.
That said, I do wonder what Nick Nurse was thinking watching them struggle against the 2-3 look before subbing Trendon Watford into the game. Had they used him as an every-play quarterback from the middle of the zone, I would have understood the logic, but we were treated to a whole lot of Watford hanging out on the perimeter, bricking his two open threes before eventually getting some touches around the free-throw line. It was not the time to send one or more of your shooters to the bench.
On the other hand, even when Watford got the opportunity to play middle-of-the-zone captain, he was a brutal decision-maker and forced several difficult shots over multiple contests in the middle of the floor.
If the logic behind going bigger was trying to get bigger to attack Milwaukee on the glass, that went out the window after Andre Drummond picked up his third foul of the first half. The Bucks were able to get out and score on the break because nearly every Sixers possession was a one-and-done sequence, putting the focus on their transition defense. Spoilers: It wasn’t very good.
Paul George has arrived?
Man, did it feel good to watch Paul George open this game with a scoring barrage. His first bucket of the night was a tough, contested finish at the rim after gliding past Myles Turner on the perimeter, scoring in traffic to announce his arrival. When Milwaukee somehow turned its back on him in early offense the next time down the floor, George accepted the invitation and stepped into a clean pull-up three, and it was on. George would can two more threes in a personal 11-point run to open the game for Philadelphia, and after the third went down, the young guys deferred to their vet star, clearing out so he could get a heat check up before they went back to running real offense.
And here’s the thing — I was thrilled to see George hoist that shot despite his miss. He hit a mean crossover and got more than enough clearance to get a good look at the hoop, but more importantly, he was feeling good about himself. That’s not something you’ve been able to say often over the last year or so.
Where they really needed George was in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, with Milwaukee trying to shake off the visitors and put this game away. His poise and shotmaking in the middle of the Bucks’ zone were a key part of the Sixers’ final-quarter push, and he sprinkled in some well-timed help defense on the other end:
If they get this guy, or something close to this guy, the Sixers are really in business. At least, they’re in business when he can play more than limited minutes.
Other notes
— Justin Edwards does not get his own section, but he was the unsung hero of this game. He played awesome defense in the first half and had the best driving moments of the season. Unfortunately, he could not hit water from a boat for most of this game.
Thankfully, he fought through that, continued to work on defense, and eventually hit a couple of big shots in overtime. Perseverance pays off.
— I understand that the roster hinges around Joel Embiid, but I do think it is a big roster construction flaw that they don’t have a true stretch big option. No, Andre Drummond doesn’t count. Not sure if either guy will be any good as pros or not, but I wonder if they will live to regret passing on someone like Maxime Raynaud in favor of Johnni Broome.
(That said, I would have taken a wing in that spot, so perhaps it’s a moot point.)
— Paul George not getting a shot off at the end of the third quarter almost made me close the laptop and go home. How is a player with his experience dribbling himself out of a shot attempt, knowing there are only 1.3 seconds on the clock?
— I can’t believe how much more confident I am in VJ Edgecombe shooting threes compared to VJ Edgecombe shooting layups. He plays about 15-20% too fast around the rim, and if he figures anything out over the next few months, I hope it is that. The rest of the pieces are there.
— It would be cool if NBC Sports thought it important to broadcast the entire game instead of showing replays and commercials over game-shifting plays midgame. Just an idea!
