December 15, 2023
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Joel Embiid put up 35 points in yet another easy win Friday night.
The Sixers returned home Friday night for a rematch against the 2-22 Pistons, who entered the night on a massive losing streak. Like they did on Wednesday night in Detroit, the Sixers were able to come away with an easy-stress free win. Here is what stood out from the 124-92 victory:
First reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarwoski, the Sixers' President of Basketball Operations signed a three-year contract extension Friday. You can read more about Morey's new deal here.
Morey spoke to the media before the game, and said he is "very excited" to remain in Philadelphia long-term.
"[My family loves] it here, and so it's a thrill to know we're going to be here for a long time going forward," Morey said.
One additional detail is that this extension aligns Morey with Sixers' head coach Nick Nurse in terms of remaining contract years.
"We go way back, and a big part of the reason I came here was [Morey]," Nurse said before the game. "I just give him credit for hanging in there... this guy knows how to get talent and put teams together. I'm happy for him."
• Over the course of Joel Embiid's prime, the Sixers have had a lot of trouble finding competent entry passers. Embiid is a brilliant scorer, of course, but the Sixers have often struggled to find players who can effectively get him the ball in position to score.
Enter Nic Batum, who is not just a satisfactory entry passer, but an excellent one. He uses his height and basketball IQ to easily put the ball exactly where it needs to be for Embiid and his other teammates. Batum set up Embiid for an easy bucket early on, and then put Tobias Harris in a position to draw a foul at the rim. He simply does all of the little things that are not always quantified in a box score.
• Embiid had a pretty rough start to this one — he scored on the first possession, but then committed three silly turnovers and took a bad shot that hit the side of the backboard. And yet, after heating up and getting in a rhythm, he ended the quarter with 12 points and six rebounds on 5-8 shooting (2-for-2 from the free throw line). The fact that Embiid can begin a game with a stretch so poor that most players might get benched afterwards, and then flip a switch and put up these kinds of numbers is absurd.
• Many times in recent weeks, the Sixers have opened games slowly on the defensive end as they play down to their competition. While they didn't blow Detroit out of the water in the first quarter, their defense was cohesive. They held the Pistons to just 22 points on 8-23 shooting, and forced a whopping seven turnovers.
• The Sixers got some very nice minutes from Marcus Morris Sr. in the first half, as he drilled a trio of threes — one from the corner and one from above the break — and even made a few nice plays defensively. Morris is likely not one of the nine best players on this team, but in the regular season his production thus far will do. It makes sense to keep him in the rotation for as long as he is shooting the ball well. If he goes cold at some point, though, Nurse will have a tough decision to make.
• Batum took one shot in the first half. He did not score a single point. And yet, his fingerprints were all over the first 24 minutes of the game. There was the aforementioned passing, but then there was also smothering defense. Batum led the charge against Pistons primary ball-handler Cade Cunningham, who in 17 first half minutes scored just two points on 1-for-7 shooting from the field and had a pair of turnovers. There are many players whose stats do not express how effective they are when it comes to impacting winning. Batum is a prime example of that.
• After dominating with his mid-range jumper in the first quarter, all eight of Embiid's second quarter points came from the charity stripe. He went 0-for-4 from the field in the period but knocked down all eight of his free throw attempts. He forced multiple Pistons into foul trouble, including starting center Isaiah Stewart — Stewart had a pregame scuffle with Patrick Beverley, the aftermath of Stewart's Flagrant 2 foul committed against Beverley on Wednesday night, and then went back and forth trash talking with Embiid for the last several minutes of the first half. Embiid and Stewart eventually each received a technical foul.
• Embiid was clearly intending to sit during the fourth quarter of the game for the second contest in a row, because he came out on absolute fire. Embiid scored 15 points in the period, including a three, a handful of free throws and a barrage of mid-range jumpers. And so, yet again, the Sixers were able to keep his minutes total relatively modest — especially valuable when considering this was the front end of a home-road back-to-back.
• Harris looked extremely decisive in this third quarter, clearly playing with a lot of confidence. His numbers were not anything to behold, but the eye test indicated a more aggressive and fruitful approach offensively. Harris also had one of his better defensive games in recent weeks.
• Morris Sr. heated up again in the fourth quarter, knocking down two more threes. He finished the night with 15 points and a 5-5 shooting line from beyond the arc. It was, all things considered, likely his strongest performance as a Sixer to date.
• Because Philadelphia is Philadelphia, there were grave concerns that the Sixers would be the team to fall to Detroit as the Pistons snap their massive losing streak. Instead, they blew the doors off their opponent twice in a row. The Sixers have two more games against lowly teams coming up — Charlotte and Chicago — and then they will have to face some more challenging opponents for a little while.
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