The Philadelphia 76ers (1-7) took on the Los Angeles Lakers (5-4) in their final game of a not-very-fun road trip. After losing two games on their West Coast visit and Tyrese Maxey for some time due to a hamstring injury, the Sixers…well, you know how it goes. Final score: 116-106.
The vibes are not good for the Sixers, who have been an inexcusably bad team to start the season and are still missing Joel Embiid. Now it’s Paul George's turn to fly solo with his star teammates sidelined. The Lakers — a fast-playing team whose health luck is trending upward and employ the NBA's current scoring leader, who is an athletic, skilled big man — made for a poor matchup with the injury-plagued Sixers.
Here are three takeaways from the 76ers' first look at JJ Redick's Lakers.
Paul George plays the role of facilitator
Rather than learning how to play together to start the season, the Sixers' Big 3 is learning how to survive without one another (Embiid will eventually have his chance). It wasn’t an easy journey to assume full control, as he had to guard LeBron James and lead one of the most uninspiring offenses in the league. In the latter role, however, he did a splendid job.
George assisted four of the 76ers' first eight threes of the game. Rather than create threes for the Sixers by shooting them himself, George set up his teammates. He also assisted Guerschon Yabusele with a slick, no-look dime on a fast break. The showtime sequence punctuated a big run that brought the game to one point.
Like many experienced, high-level scorers, George is capable of reading the open floor and swinging the ball to places that become open because of his scoring gravity. Not only did he keep the ball moving in this game but he didn’t turn the ball over once. Perhaps his most impressive dime was a lob pass to him from Kyle Lowry that he turned into a mid-air drop-off to Andre Drummond for a dunk.
George was again under a minute restriction, with the goal being 25 to 30 minutes. He shot the ball poorly in this game — going 4-13 from the field and 0-6 from deep — but showed that he can do much more than score, recording a team-high eight assists in 25 minutes.
76ers bench steps up
The Sixers bumped Eric Gordon out of the rotation for this one, turning to some of its younger guys off the bench. The younger Philly reserves made like the local WNBA team and provided sparks off the bench.
Jared McCain and Ricky Council IV got first-quarter minutes, giving the Sixers an infusion of energy. Simply just having guys who can get out and go was helpful even if they didn’t do much. KJ Martin got a chance to play in his hometown and provided strong defense and five early points. McCain would end up playing more minutes in the first half than any Sixer besides Lowry.
Martin and Yabusele, while a bit older than the three aforementioned Sixers, put a lot of pressure on the Lakers by getting into the paint (with and without the ball) and playing stout defense. Yabusele went on a scoring outburst in the second quarter that, paired with some triples from McCain, got Philly back in it after going down by as much as 13 less than halfway through the first quarter.
Not only did Nick Nurse make some good decisions — another one of which was limiting three-guard lineups — but he let the guys who were playing well play more, even though it changed the lineup distribution between the starters and some of their backups. It may be harder to establish rhythms by doling out minutes on a game-to-game basis. However, letting the hot hands stay hot also may be the only way the undermanned Sixers can win.
Ultimately, despite McCain getting some buckets in the third quarter and Yabusele hitting a buzzer-beating triple from right in front of halfcourt, the Sixers couldn’t let those glowing performances light the way to a win. Both of them are worthy of playing a bunch of minutes going forward.
Nothing gold can stay
There are times when the shorthanded 76ers look surprisingly good. They can punch above their weight when they keep the ball moving, push the pace and defend and rebound with tenacity and unity. However, they just don’t have enough firepower to sustain any stretch of good play against even decent teams.
The Sixers went into the break trailing by eight despite the Lakers shooting 11-19 from deep. But LA came out of the break putting the kibosh on whatever offense Philly had. The Clippers did this, too, riding a dominant run in the third quarter to an easy victory on Wednesday.
Austin Reaves' unreal shooting from deep certainly propelled the Lakers, and crazy shooting variance like that can sometimes just happen, but other facets of LA's success were perfectly repeatable, namely its dominance in the glass. James and Davis were too big to handle. LeBron notched a triple-double, getting wherever he wanted all night. Davis got a few threes to go but otherwise did most of his damage right at the cup, scoring 31 points.
The Sixers' interior defense remained troublesome, outdoing the solid work they were doing in the rebounding, free-throw and turnover battles. Heck, they were even close to drawing even in assists in this game. But Philly is too small and not intimidating enough defensively to prop any successes it finds anywhere else.
Other takeaways
- Drummond sure can rebound but he struggles to do so many other things big man has to do. It's brutal to watch him try to finish shots in the paint, efforts which consist heavily of getting stripped and just missing close looks. He might justifiably be out of the rotation when Embiid returns.
- Several times, the Sixers and Lakers fought for a loose ball near the basket that tipped in, resulting in points for LA. As if Philly's shooting troubles weren’t bad enough.
- Caleb Martin had a nice bounce-back game with his shooting, going 3-4 from deep.
That’s a wrap on the Sixers' first West Coast road trip. They’ll jump back into action on Sunday at home against the Charlotte Hornets.
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