The Philadelphia 76ers have used the Cleveland Cavaliers as an avenue to two surprising wins during their ongoing Joel Embiid-less stint. As the big fella prepares for his return, the Sixers had another chance to upset the Cavs. They hung in there and got the best performance as a Sixer from Kyle Lowry so far but couldn’t hold on for long enough, losing 117-114.
The Sixers have relied on Tyrese Maxey to lead them with Embiid sidelined but they got a poor shooting performance out of him, as he shot just 7-26 from the field. Despite having 11 assists, Maxey's poor shooting had a profoundly negative impact on Philly's chances to win. Tobias Harris helped pick up the slack with 21 points on 8-17 shooting but Lowry's big scoring outburst was truly out of left field.
In just under 32 minutes, Lowry notched 23 points, six assists and three rebounds in the loss to the Cavs, shooting 7-12 from the field, 4-8 on threes and 5-5 from the foul line. He led the Sixers in points in the game and notched a new high for his tenure in Philly. Although he also had five fouls, his performance was crucial.
Nick Nurse is no stranger to seeing big games out of Lowry. Although he knows that the star he spent a long time working with on the Toronto Raptors is in the twilight of his career, he knows he can step up when the opportunities present themselves.
“I think he just got put in the situation where the ball got in his hands a lot and he had to make a play,” Nurse told reporters. “He certainly got a couple threes but he also…was super determined. He [was] just willing that thing in the basket for a stretch and we just needed it. We had a lot of guys struggling from the field tonight, so we needed him to will those in there. He almost brought us [back] from down, I don't know, six or seven to back ahead and all that stuff. So, he was really good tonight.”
On top of making half of his threes, Lowry found success using his size to get into the mid-range and throwing off his defender with shot fakes. He only shot once at the rim but tied with Paul Reed for the most free-throw attempts on the team.
Lowry said to reporters that he wanted to be more aggressive for Maxey, who has taken on the massive responsibility of being the Sixers' top option with pride. “There's a fine line between being too aggressive and not aggressive enough,” he said. Tonight presented him a chance to do that. Although it wasn’t enough to get the 76ers a win, it
Nurse has spoken often about all the intangibles that Lowry brings to the team but also pointed out after one of his good games that his shooting will hopefully start coming around.
“It was good to see 'cause we know he's given us a lot of things organizationally, toughness-wise, leadership-wise and wasn't giving us a ton of offense,” Nurse continued. “Not expecting 23 out of him every night but if he's got some opportunities taking 'em and making 'em pay off.”
It'll be much easier for Lowry to have efficient scoring nights when Embiid returns. Even if he doesn’t give the 76ers a third 20-point-per-game scorer, he should fit very nicely with the big man.
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