In search of their 16th win of the season, the Sixers returned to action on Friday night as a undermanned version of themselves. Joel Embiid missed his third consecutive game with a left foot sprain, while Kyle Lowry, Andre Drummond and KJ Martin remained out.
Paul George, who was out for the Sixers' win over the NBA-worst Washington Wizards on Wednesday night due to left groin tightness, returned to the lineup in this one. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse went with George alongside Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr., Caleb Martin and Guerschon Yabusele in his starting five.
Meanwhile, the Sixers found themselves hosting the only team which has dealt with worse injury luck in 2024-25: the New Orleans Pelicans, who were already without the injured Herb Jones, Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy III in Philadelphia.
Moments before Pelicans head coach and former Sixers shooting guard Willie Green met with the media, the Pelicans announced that star Zion Williamson -- who just returned from a significant absence due to an injury of his own -- had been suspended for the game for "a violation of team policies." Green confirmed reports that said violation was Williamson's tardiness -- and said Williamson reportedly being late for the team's recent flight to Philadelphia was not an isolated incident.
Stop if you've heard this before: in a game in which the Sixers looked like the clear favorites on paper, they came out flat early and put themselves in a hole. Maxey and George were nowhere close to their best in the first half, and the Sixers found themselves trailing at the midway point of the game. By the time both players found grooves with their scoring, the Sixers had completely collapsed defensively.
The Sixers could never muster good stretches of two-way basketball on Friday. The result: a loss to a severely short-handed New Orleans Pelicans team which owns the worst record in the Western Conference. Here is what stood out from a 123-115 Sixers loss which elicited a whole lot of boos:
Maxey and George struggle from the outset
With Embiid still sidelined, the Sixers needed Maxey and George to not only play well off each other, but also be prepared to carry significant offensive workloads when serving as the team's lone star when the other player needed time to rest. Early on, both All-Stars failed to do either of those things well. When playing alongside each other, Maxey was inefficient while George could not get going whatsoever -- and both players failed to engineer any sort of consistent scoring when tasked with riding solo.
Maxey made three of his four shots from inside the arc in the first quarter, but after shooting just 3-for-14 from beyond the arc on Wednesday night, he missed all five of his long-range tries in the opening frame on Friday -- despite once again having quite a few open looks.
George opened the game's scoring with an encouraging drive and finish at the rim, but missed four other shots in the opening frame -- and, as George has done far too often as a Sixer, he found himself settling for inefficient looks over strong contests from opposing defenders.
The Sixers managed to score just 24 points in the first quarter, and their two available star players were directly responsible for the poor production. After a dozen minutes, New Orleans held a 28-24 lead. In the second quarter, though, they only mustered 23 points, and at intermission, the Pelicans led the Sixers 53-47 behind 23 points from McCollum.
George only logged three minutes and change in the second quarter, because two quick fouls after one in the opening frame put him in foul trouble once again. Issues with fouling have plagued George since the team's recent West Coast swing, and the particular circumstances of this one were puzzling. Just a few minutes into the second quarter,
With George essentially unavailable, Maxey played in the final six minutes and 45 seconds of the second quarter. Naturally, the Sixers needed him to take over the offense. Instead, Maxey made just two free throws and took one shot. That lone field goal try during the entire span came when he threw up a last-second attempt at a buzzer-beating triple, which did not go down.
The Sixers will only go as far as the players their roster is built around will take them. Even with a healthy Embiid, these lengthy stretches of subpar play (or worse) from Maxey and George are not tenable.
Sixers fail to find early answers against CJ McCollum
While Maxey and George could not score effectively in the first half for the Sixers, the Pelicans enjoyed an early explosion from the veteran McCollum, who recently notched a 50-point game against the Wizards. With Maxey as his primary defender and plenty of other Sixers taking cracks at defending him, McCollum scored 18 points in just the opening frame.
Nurse opening the game with Maxey defending McCollum and Oubre defending Dejounte Murray was slightly surprising; typically when an opposing team has two primary scoring threats on the perimeter, it is Oubre and Martin who take those assignments. Maxey has made terrific improvements as a defensive player this season, but they stem from his off-ball instincts more than his ability to guard in one-on-one situations.
Ricky Council IV finds himself and gives the Sixers a spark
The lone Sixer to perform notably well in the first half was Council, who gave the team nine strong minutes in which he scored 11 points.
Council has been unable to play like the best version of himself for more than a few moments at a time throughout his second NBA season, and it culminated with undrafted two-way rookie Justin Edwards supplanting Council in the pecking order on the wing for the last four games.
Nurse elected to remove Edwards from the rotation against New Orleans, though, offering Council a chance at extended run. It paid off early, as Council's offensive jolt was absolutely necessary to keep the Sixers afloat rather than falling behind by a significant margin.
Sixers defense craters and Pelicans pull away despite George's heater
The Sixers could not muster any solidified, lengthy stretch of strong two-way basketball during the third quarter. They allowed a significant New Orleans run at one point. But on three separate occasions during the dozen minutes of action, one of their players made a strong push. First it was Maxey, who found a scoring groove inside the arc. Then it was Oubre, whose infectious energy uplifted his teammates and the Wells Fargo Center crowd. Finally, George got going as a shooter, knocking down some timely jumpers. The Sixers finally had their offense humming.
A Maxey bucket gave the Sixers a brief lead midway through the quarter, but that is when Nurse's team completely fell apart on defense. For several minutes -- not just much of the third quarter, but also most of the fourth quarter -- the Sixers experience defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown.
George was in a rhythm, then he became red-hot. But even as George splashed jumper after jumper, the Sixers were steadily losing ground because they could just not get stops. When it wasn't McCollum, it was the young Jordan Hawkins and Jose Alvarado (no, not the Phillies relief pitcher) who did whatever they wanted against the Sixers' weak defense.
Frankly, the number of miscues on that end of the floor from the Sixers was incredibly embarrassing for any NBA team that is nearly halfway into an 82-game regular season. For a team desperate to scratch and claw its way to any win it can find, regardless of the level of competition it is facing, it was unacceptable.
Up next: The Sixers are departing for Orlando, and on Sunday night will face a Magic team which has welcomed back All-Star forward Paolo Banchero.
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