Joel Embiid saved one of his best games of the season for the final Sixers game before the break, leading the Sixers to a 123-120 victory over the Bucks with 42 points, 14 rebounds and five assists on Thursday night.
Here's what I saw.
The Good
• Joel Embiid has had a lot of monstrous performances this season, and even though this game's overall box score might not even fully describe just how good he was, this one ranks among the very best for me. The Bucks threw the kitchen sink at him for most of the game, and he continually made the right reads and decisions even when teammates failed to come through for him. Between lineup adjustments and Embiid's renewed determination, the Sixers eventually found a path forward that did not rely on him playmaking for guys who couldn't finish the job, and he absolutely dominated from that point forward.
When Embiid makes threes, your best bet to stop him is to simply drop down to your knees and pray. On Thursday night, Embiid was making them from all over the floor, and occasionally off his own dribble to boot. There was a pull-up in the corner, a trail three after directing traffic, and a beautiful two-for-one possession where he got the Sixers an extra chance to score at the end of the first half on top of the three points collected via the jumper.
And yes, just days after he was seen practicing the "Harden stepback" at the practice facility in Camden — two days after he had a hilarious failure of an in-game attempt, too — Embiid uncorked a beautiful rendition on Milwaukee's floor:
That simply shouldn't be possible at his size.
The pick-and-roll attack that featured in the second quarter brought the best out of Maxey, but Embiid had a terrific sequence in the quarter that will be lost in the sands of time because of a Maxey miss. Embiid and Maxey pinged the ball back and forth so quickly with Embiid in a post-up that Maxey eventually got a wide-open look from deep with the defense scrambling back and forth to execute their strategy. The touch pass has become an even bigger part of Embiid's arsenal lately, with Embiid almost slapping the ball back out if auto-doubles come, harkening back to his roots as a volleyball player.
They needed everything out of Embiid to get this over the line, with Embiid even raising his level on defense in the final five minutes as the situation warranted it. After leaving the Giannis assignment to Georges Niang for most of the night, Embiid stepped up to defend the other team's MVP candidate, and it was no small part of Philadelphia's march toward victory.
While this is not necessarily the full-strength version of the Bucks — a healthy Brook Lopez offers a little more heft guarding him — Embiid's dismantling of everything they tried to do to stop him was just beautiful to watch. He destroyed Bobby Portis, created open looks for others, and had the Sixers playing frontrunner despite their depth still being in shambles with Harden resting through the All-Star break.
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• When the Sixers went into a timeout down double digits in the second quarter, Tyrese Maxey was barely involved in the game, passing up open looks and playing passenger regardless of the lineup that was on the floor. It appeared that James Harden, separate from any conversations with the coaching staff, wasn't too pleased with that, and so he got in the ear of his soon-to-be partner in the backcourt.
Whatever was said in that huddle, it had Harden yelling "THANK YOU!" at Maxey repeatedly moments later, when the second-year guard poured in 14 points during the second quarter alone to push Philadelphia out in front. The fact that he did it with one of the best perimeter defenders on the planet checking him is not lost on this reporter — that was special stuff, and the Sixers brought it out of him by spreading out the floor and letting the Embiid/Maxey pairing go to work in the pick-and-roll.
Maxey did damage from just about everywhere with space cleared on one side of the floor and Tobias Harris lurking in the dunker spot for the back half of the second period. There were pull-up jumpers from midrange, layups through contact at the rim, even a stepback three from Maxey, who quickly went into heat check mode after seeing a couple of shots go down. In the span of a few minutes, Maxey transformed from non-factor into one of the game's most important players.
This is what they need to push this kid to do at all times. Whether it takes the words of a veteran mentor, changes to the lineup, or Maxey simply focusing more on scoring without the burden of playmaking for everybody else, they have to tap into his gifts early and often. He is critical to their plans now and down the road. Stay on him.
• The concept of sticking Georges Niang on Giannis Antetokounmpo seems pretty insane on the surface, but as we saw with how the game played out on Thursday night, I do think there's some logic behind it. Niang is a (relatively) big guy who can somewhat hold his ground when Milwaukee's MVP tries to back him down, and if he gets beat, he still has Joel Embiid behind him to stop Antetokounmpo from scoring at the rim. Instead of forcing Embiid to win an extremely difficult one-on-one battle, the Sixers left him in a position to help out, shading him away from Bobby Portis in the corners. That helped keep Giannis in check early on.
Credit Niang for his contribution to the game plan, too, because he still had to actually stop Giannis from getting to the rim. In the early portion of this game, there were very few easy looks for the Greek Freak, who took (and often missed) fadeaway jumpers with Niang on him and Embiid roaming on the back end. The other end was arguably even more important for Niang, who hit five threes and always seemed to be in the exact spot where Embiid needed him. Niang feels like a guy who is really going to lift off playing next to Harden, who I have to imagine will appreciate his quick trigger at least as much as the big guy does.
The defensive approach vs. Giannis was another story when the game turned over to the bench, but I'm not sure how you construct a cohesive game plan against Giannis with this group and no Embiid on the floor. One cohesive gameplan piece: don't use a Milton-Korkmaz-Green-Niang-Millsap lineup against Giannis. A little more bulk is probably needed if you're asking me. Paul Reed probably deserved a shot to play in this one.
I get that Doc Rivers is not the most popular coach in Philadelphia sports history, and he had his issues in this one, but they had a coherent, cohesive game plan to slow down a guy who you'd think would tear this team up on paper, and they executed it almost perfectly for most of the night. Add on that he abandoned the idea of starting Thybulle in order to stick with what worked late in the first half, and I thought this was one of the better games he has had all season tactically. We'll discuss the mistakes later...
(One more Niang note: his switch on the ATO shot for Milwaukee/Khris Middleton prevented the Bucks from getting a clean look to tie the game. The correct read and response at the game's biggest moment, after a full game of going body-to-body with Giannis in the post. This was his best game with the franchise to date.)
• The final line was not overwhelming, but I would take this version of Tobias Harris any day of the week, any time of the year. Threes went up with no hesitation, and when he did step out of an open look, Harris got downhill in a hurry, attacking the basket instead of slowing down to take a contested jumper from the mid-post. It led to excellent results for Harris as a finisher, and his early scoring was part of what allowed the Sixers to get off to a decent start despite their role players/shooters struggling to get into this game.
It really seems this simple for Harris — when he doesn't overthink the game and isn't having long, drawn-out possessions run through him, he looks like a totally different guy. That's true for just about everybody because it's hard to succeed with slow and methodical offense from midrange, and Harris doesn't have to make the game more difficult than it needs to be just because he has the skill to get by that way.
• Furkan Korkmaz made two absolutely huge defensive plays in crunch time. He's no stopper, but he is engaged and cares, and that was all it took to help Philadelphia get a win. Down season or not, they don't win this one without him.
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The Bad
• Everything I said above about Doc Rivers remains true, but under no circumstances should a Milton-Korkmaz-Green-Niang-Millsap lineup see the floor, which is especially true when Giannis is on the floor. Unfortunately, there is little-to-no evidence that these lineup brain farts are going to disappear when the games matter, because they didn't when the Sixers were in high leverage moments last season, and Rivers has consistently faced questions about how he manages his players in the playoffs.
For many people, this and this alone is going to be enough to challenge Rivers' position as the coach of this team. I don't see it that way, but I get it — simply putting a reasonable lineup on the floor for 48 straight minutes might be enough for Philadelphia to compete with the best teams in the league. Rivers should absolutely be able to do that, especially when he has both Embiid and Harden available to play. There will be no excuses as of Harden's debut.
But I'm simply not going to turn this game into a referendum on Doc Rivers. He did plenty of good in this one.
• I don't have any problem with the guys who got up threes and simply missed them. Tobias Harris, for example, is a guy who we regularly criticize for being too hesitant, and I thought he was one of the few players who showed the proper urgency when open shot attempts came to him. But a lot of these guys continue to stare down shot attempts or (even worse!) not consider them in the first place, taking opportunities off of the table and stalling the offense.
The biggest culprit was Matisse Thybulle, and if Thybulle is going to be gunshy when teams leave him open, the Sixers will quickly reach a point where he is straight-up unplayable for this group. That played out in real-time on the floor in Milwaukee — Philadelphia's second-quarter run started when Doc Rivers subbed Thybulle out of the game for Furkan Korkmaz, who may not be shooting well this season but still commands respect from the defense. With Milwaukee hanging a bit closer to Korkmaz, it opened up the space on the floor for Maxey and Embiid to go to work, and that's something that will not be lost on the coaching staff when they review the tape for this game. Rivers all but abandoned Thybulle in the second half, and though they could have used some defensive punch, it's hard to argue that Thybulle deserved to be on the floor on merit.
It's why I am still a bit skeptical of Thybulle's place in the best version of this team. For a group that will be built around Harden and Embiid dominating the middle of the floor, every inch of space is going to matter, and Thybulle actively hurts them in their quest for spacing. Failing a miraculous buyout acquisition, the Sixers are going to have to make lots of offense/defense subs late in games, which is a tough way to live against the league's elite teams.
(It's arguably worse that Thybulle was just getting absolutely smoked by Jrue Holiday when he guarded him at times on Thursday night. The offensive issues are one thing, but you can't compound them by getting beaten up on the end where you're supposed to be the expert.)
• It is absolutely infuriating watching this team on the defensive glass. They are bad in every way you could imagine — they don't box out, they don't attack the ball, they're flat-footed on long-rebounds, they get beat to spots, they're often undersized, and it is impossible to see most of these problems being solved by simply adding Harden to the lineup, even though he is a good rebounder for his position.
In a world where the Sixers limited Milwaukee's second-chance opportunities, this was a potential blowout waiting to happen. But the Bucks slowly gained ground throughout the third quarter, and it would eventually become a dogfight in the fourth, which felt avoidable based on how the game played out.
• The big blemish on Embiid's report card came in the turnover category on Thursday night, and basically all of the bad ones came in the third quarter. His lob to Tobias Harris early in the third wouldn't have been dunked if Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had Michael Jordan's vertical athleticism.
The Ugly
• Tony Brothers calling a foul from halfcourt with two officials closer to the play is a good summation of the Tony Brothers experience.
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