February 25, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA Today Sports
Doc Rivers and the Bucks defeated the Sixers in the coach's return to Philadelphia.
Former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers and former Sixers point guard Patrick Beverley made their highly-anticipated returns to Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon for a matinee matchup between the Sixers and Milwaukee Bucks. After a red-hot start to the game for Milwaukee, the Sixers could never make serious inroads on the Buck's lead, losing 119-98. Here is what jumped out from the home loss:
Ever since Joel Embiid went down with his left meniscus injury and Paul Reed was inserted into the starting lineup, the Sixers have been desperately trying to figure out who can give them competent and consistent minutes as a backup center.
Mo Bamba has been the incumbent of sorts, but he has struggled mightily in the vast majority of his minutes: his defense has been poor, the Sixers have not been able to secure rebounds with him on the floor and he has offered very little offensive utility.
The Sixers' next-best option of late has been the extremely athletic KJ Martin, who is perhaps optimized when used as a small-ball big-man rather than as a traditional wing. But after injuring his ankle on Friday night, Martin missed this contest -- the Sixers do not expect him to be out for long, though -- and so it seemed as if Bamba would be the easy choice.
Instead, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse threw a curveball, going with Nic Batum, one of the team's starting forwards, at the center position against a Milwaukee team that boasts impressive size. The Sixers were on the wrong end of a major run during those minutes, but there is not necessarily a correlation there: Milwaukee made a major run not because of their offense, but because the Sixers were repeatedly failing to generate good looks for themselves as an offense. It was not until the second half -- when Reed picked up his fifth personal foul moments into the third quarter -- when Bamba received minutes. Later on in the game, it was Tobias Harris sho manned the middle.
Nurse is willing to try just about anything. How he tries to piece together 48 center minutes will continue to be a storyline worth following.
The Bucks took control of this game in its opening minutes and never looked back. Even as Tobias Harris and the Sixers did a decent job limiting Giannis Antetokounmpo in transition, Antetokounmpo's supporting cast put together a massive barrage of three-point makes. Damian Lillard, Malik Beasley and Bobby Portis each made three triples in the first half alone. Milwaukee finished the half with 13 triples, while the Sixers only knocked down six three-point tries during that same period.
Eventually, Antetokounmpo did get going, making a major impact on both ends of the floor as he is known to do. His Bucks went on a rampage to close the first half, extending a lead the Sixers had trimmed to seven all the way up to 21 by the end of the half. Frankly, the Sixers looked outclassed on both ends of the floor: the Bucks were generating terrific look after terrific look while the Sixers were taking up the entire shot clock in order to throw up poor shots that did not go down.
Melton missed 18 consecutive games with a back injury before returning in Thursday night's win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nurse said before this game that Melton's back responded after he received his first bit of action, and Melton was able to create some positive momentum for himself in this one by shooting the ball very well from beyond the arc.
What Melton's exact role will be once he is fully integrated within this new-look Sixers roster remains to be seen -- with Kyle Lowry and Buddy Hield now in the fold, his role will likely be different than it was before. But regardless of the specific tasks he is asked to perform, Melton will provide the Sixers with tremendous depth at the guard position. Tyrese Maxey and Hield starting with Lowry and Melton coming off the bench -- which seems like the most likely outcome in the long-term at this point -- is instantly one of the league's best and most versatile guard rotations.
The Sixers' second-longest-tenured player has been in a slump lately, and his difficulties as a scorer only escalated in this one. Harris often struggles against extreme length and athleticism on the wing, and so it was quite a challenge for the veteran wing to score with Antetokounmpo serving as his primary defender for the majority of the game. Harris' continued struggles are certainly worth being concerned over -- the Embiid-less Sixers are desperate for him to give them a few weeks of his best basketball, and instead he is giving them his worst basketball. Something needs to change, and it needs to happen soon.
