February 22, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Fellow All-Star guards Tyrese Maxey and Jalen Brunson went toe-to-toe Thursday night.
As they made their return from the All-Star break, the Sixers took the floor at the Wells Fargo Center Thursday night for a home matchup against the rival New York Knicks, as two new-look teams dealing with injuries faced off. While these are two teams with similar ambitions, they looked like they were in different classes — the Knicks dominated the Sixers for all but just as few minutes of the game. Here is what jumped out from the resounding 110-96 loss:
Tyrese Maxey knocked down a triple on the Sixers' first possession of the game. But then it took nearly five minutes for the Sixers to score again — a period in which they missed all eight of their field goal attempts. In addition, the Knicks' offense got hot, going on a 15-0 run. It sounded like a game at Madison Square Garden early, with Knicks fans taking over the building as their team got off to a hot start.
When a team has a first quarter as poor as that of the Sixers in this one, it is essential that they come out strong in the second quarter to avoid a blowout. That is... not what happened. The Sixers looked even worse in the second quarter than they did in the first 12 minutes, and the Knicks' lead only grew. Bojan Bogdanovic — a rumored Sixers trade deadline target who ended up being dealt to the Knicks via the Detroit Pistons — scored 19 points on 5-5 shooting from beyond the arc in the first half alone, while Josh Hart and Precious Achiuwa dominated on the glass and in the paint. Even while missing two high-level starters in Julius Randle and OG Anunoby, the Knicks played like a well-oiled machine. The Joel Embiid-less Sixers were, let's say, less impressive.
Lowry made his Sixers debut as one of the team's first substitutions — alongside Kelly Oubre Jr. and KJ Martin — and converted a nifty reverse layup on his first shot attempt as a Sixer. It is extremely early, but Lowry figures to give the Sixers some tremendous backup point guard play — if that is the spot where Sixers head coach Nick Nurse keeps him. Lowry starting alongside Maxey on a regular basis would be a bit surprising, but Sixers head coach Nick Nurse indicated before the game that it is possible. Buddy Hield and Nic Batum both started on the wing in this one, though — likely the predominant arrangement moving forward.
Just when Lowry started to get in a rhythm, though, he took a tough blow to the head courtesy of an elbow from Knicks center Jericho Sims. Lowry instantly fell to the floor in extreme pain and was immediately taken back to the locker room. Lowry missed the remainder of the first half, but ultimately did return to the game.
In his brief absence, the Sixers upon the services of Cam Payne — who was out of the rotation as a result of Lowry's arrival initially — to serve as Maxey's backup, as he ended up playing well at the end of the first half.
In the second half, Lowry was able to give the Sixers a major infusion of energy after Batum got back into foul trouble, helping lead the charge as the Sixers made it a game again. His cohesion with the rest of the team accelerated pretty quickly.
Nurse has plenty of decisions on his hands in the near future as he examines his new-look roster. This game was our first look at how he is going to handle a deeper roster.
Nurse opted to start the game with a nine-man rotation rather than a 10-man rotation. In addition to Payne initially being out of the rotation, Ricky Council IV did not get into the game until Batum got into foul trouble late in the first half. Playing over the two of them was Martin, who impressed quite a bit in the final few games before the All-Star break.
The reason Payne and Council both had to sit in place of Martin is because the athletic wing was playing as a wing, not a big. And that is because backing up Paul Reed to open the game was Mo Bamba, who continues to struggle mightily in just about every facet of the game. The team cannot rebound the ball well at all when he mans the middle, his defense is negligible aside from the occasional weak side shot block and his offensive utility is basically nonexistent. And so, when the second half came around, Martin slid up to the five in place of Bamba — and the Sixers made a run.
The trade and buyout markets being light on bigs is a brutal blow for the Sixers, who are now once again without 48 minutes of competent center play — unless Martin as a small-ball five becomes an effective chess piece for Nurse, as it has been recently.
The play of Sixers' first-time All-Star guard was the only reason they worked themselves back into the game. Maxey dominated as a shooter and scorer, and he did so by doing a little bit of everything. He got to his step-back threes a couple of times, he hit spot-up jumpers off assists from Lowry and Payne as an off-ball weapon, he got to the rim to score and he poured in a bunch of free throws. Unfortunately for Maxey, on a night when the Sixers had the best player on the floor, they simply were not the better team.
Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice
