January 05, 2025
Joe Camporeale/Imagn Images
Can the Sixers kick off their three-game homestand with a win against the Phoenix Suns?
The Sixers' six-game road trip — with games in Boston and Brooklyn bookending four contests on the West Coast — is finally in the rearview mirror. The team is off Sunday before kicking off a three-game homestand which will keep them at home in Philadelphia for the week.
Let's preview the week ahead for the Sixers — which contains a slate of games representing further opportunity for the Sixers to bolster their record — with a focus on one critical matchup to watch for in each contest:
Matchup to watch: Tyrese Maxey defending Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant
The 6-foot-2 Maxey will, of course, not be the primary defender on any of Booker, Beal or Durant. Kelly Oubre Jr., Paul George and Caleb Martin figure to draw those assignments at the beginning and end of the game, with Ricky Council IV likely factoring into that equation off the bench.
So, two questions emerge. First, how often will Phoenix hunt switches to target the smaller Maxey as a defender on an island against three scorers with size advantages? And how will Maxey and the Sixers fare when those situations do arise? Maxey's defensive growth in his fifth NBA season has been astounding; he has more than doubled his previous career-high in steals per game through 27 contests in 2024-25. But many of those steals have been opportunistic off-ball plays.
Maxey has occasionally been able to stand his ground in one-on-one coverage and get a stop or nab a steal, but that is not his strength as a defensive player, nor is it what has suddenly turned him into a positive-impact weapon on that end of the floor. What does help Maxey, though, is the noticeable muscle he put on before the season. There are valid questions to be asked about whether Maxey needed to add so much bulk — and whether or not that physical adjustment has had any influence over what has been the worst jump-shooting season of his NBA career to date — but it will come in handy in a matchup like this.
If the Suns do target Maxey on defensive switches, it could serve as a valuable data point for the Sixers as they begin thinking about what their team would look like in a playoff setting. If the Sixers do eventually get to the playoffs and are involved in the highest levels of NBA basketball, opposing teams will waste no time testing Maxey's ability to guard on the ball in disadvantageous situations. Switch-hunting is often at its most prevalent in postseason basketball, and Maxey is the lone player who projects to start for the Sixers for the remainder of the season who can be targeted.
MORE: Has Maxey made a defensive leap?
Matchup to watch: Oubre defending Jordan Poole
As of this writing, only one team in the NBA has a worse record than these Washington Wizards, who lost 16 straight games after winning two of their first four contests of the season and have remained on a troubling trajectory ever since. The Wizards do have some intriguing recent draft choices — No. 2 overall pick Alex Sarr was recently named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for December — but they have another player who is attempting to prove he can be part of their long-term future.
Poole is in his sixth NBA season, and many have comfortably written him off as a contributor to any sort of high-level team after a rough couple of years filled with lowlights. But before those two difficult seasons, Poole was a significant piece of a Golden State Warriors team that won it all.
Poole is still in just his age-25 season, and in his second year after being traded to the Wizards is averaging 21.8 points and 5.0 assists per game on efficiency nearly identical to that of his breakout season for the Warriors when they became champions in 2021-22.
Because of the lack of quality personnel around him, though, Poole getting red-hot is essentially a prerequisite to the Wizards having a chance to win on any given night:
| Poole in wins | Poole in losses |
| 6 games | 22 games |
| 28.5 PPG | 20.0 PPG |
| 64.4 TS% | 57.8 TS% |
The Sixers have multiple defenders they can throw at Poole — and head coach Nick Nurse enjoys the challenge of mixing up coverages when primarily focused on stopping one player — but Oubre, a teammate of Poole's during the 2020-21 season with Golden State, will likely be the main defender against Washington's most dangerous scorer. Nurse typically uses Oubre in those situations when the opposing team's strongest threat is a guard, while Martin gets the call should the player be a wing.
MORE: Caleb Martin, Guerschon Yabusele star on road trip
Matchup to watch: George being defended by Herb Jones
That one NBA team with a worse record than the Wizards right now? Meet the 2024-25 Pelicans, whose injury luck makes what the Sixers have experienced seem like a stroll in the park. It would be significantly quicker to list the members of New Orleans' roster who have not missed extended action this season than all of the ones who have, but in any case: Jones, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Jose Alvarado, Dejounte Murray and CJ McCollum have all missed at least a dozen games already.
Jones is back right now, and New Orleans' stellar defensive ace will likely toggle between defending Maxey and George. Given Jones' size and length on the wing, George could be his primary assignment, though — an extremely challenging proposition for a player in George who is having what is far and away his worst season as a scorer in over a decade.
George has already expressed significant respect for Jones' defensive acumen:
Paul George had high praise for Herb Jones tonight, especially with Jones blocking PG’s 3-pointer pic.twitter.com/Qnzy2Ftuev
— Law Murray 🔜 (@LawMurrayTheNU) March 16, 2024
The nine-time All-Star will have his hands full with Jones defending him, but if he can get the better of the 26-year-old who was honored as an NBA First Team All-Defense member last season, the Pelicans will be hard-pressed to notch a win in Philadelphia.
MORE: How can George score consistently?
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