March 14, 2024
Jeff Hanisch/USA TODAY Sports
It took a collective effort, but the Sixers were able to force a handful of turnovers against two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo Thursday night.
Looking to rebound after a brutal loss at the hands of the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, the Sixers headed to Milwaukee for a matchup against former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers and the Bucks Thursday night. After a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle, the Sixers fell to Milwaukee, 114-105. Here is what stood out from the team's second straight loss:
The Sixers scored 29 points in the first quarter of action on Thursday night. While that may not sound remarkable, consider this: that is the same amount of points they scored in both first quarters they played in New York earlier this week combined. Tyrese Maxey knocked down two triples to open the game, and Buddy Hield did the same to end the period. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse indicated after the team's first of two matchups against the Knicks that he was comfortable with the shots his team was taking, they merely were not going in. Early on in this one, they did go in.
Nurse has almost exclusively used nine-man rotations since the All-Star break, with KJ Martin's status occasionally being up in the air. But in this one, he decided that in addition to his starters (Maxey, Kyle Lowry, Kelly Oubre Jr., Tobias Harris and Mo Bamba) and his key reserves (Hield, Nic Batum and Paul Reed), that both Cam Payne and Martin would receive some run off the bench, taking him to a 10-man rotation.
Martin was able to make a few standout plays early on, contributing to the team's rather impressive early defense against Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Payne was able to create offense for others, and then knocked down three triples on three tries during his stint of playing time -- and he was even more animated than usual as he went at the team that traded him along with a future second-round draft pick to the Sixers in exchange for Patrick Beverley last month.
Despite giving up several inches, Martin did an admirable job defending Milwaukee's two-time NBA MVP, and he received plenty of help from Reed, among others, who were honed in on Antetokounmpo and frequently double-teaming him. Antetokounmpo struggled initially with Nurse's aggressive defensive coverages, as he has in years past.
Joel Embiid may be the only player in the NBA with the requisite combination of strength and basketball IQ to have any chance at successfully limiting Antetokounmpo in single coverage. And, of course, he was not available in this one. So in what was a true team effort, Martin, Reed, Harris and others were able to rattle Antetokounmpo enough to force four turnovers in the first half alone, stalling Milwaukee's half-court offense.
Maxey scored just 17 points in his return on Tuesday night. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, he started to look out of sorts a bit. Maxey only ended up playing 28 minutes, as the Knicks put the game out of reach very early in the fourth quarter. Maxey topped that total in the first half alone, in which he scored 18 points. Maxey knocked down seven of his 10 field goal attempts in the half, including four of his five tries from beyond the arc -- with his only miss from three-point range being a half-court heave to end the second quarter.
Nurse has repeatedly discussed wanting to play Maxey alongside other players capable of being primary ball-handlers -- namely, Lowry and Payne -- to provide the first-time All-Star guard with what Nurse calls a "change of scenery." Early in the season and in the immediate aftermath of Embiid's injury, Maxey was tasked with such massive burdens as a ball-handler. Replacing Beverley with a better creator in Payne and adding a basketball wizard in Lowry has enabled Maxey to be weaponized as an off-ball weapon at times. It is somewhat reminiscent of his usage over the last season-plus before this one in which Maxey was the team's secondary ball-handler behind James Harden.
Lowry becoming a permanent starter alongside Maxey surprised some, but now it is becoming evident why Nurse decided to go down that path. Diversifying Maxey's role should continue be a priority moving forward for the sake of stylistic versatility.
The Sixers controlled the pace and scoreboard for the majority of this game, but they were never able to extend their lead beyond a few possessions for the duration of the second half. Given the talent discrepancy at hand, the Sixers needed to take advantage of certain periods in which they could have taken the lead to greater heights, but they just could not do it.
Eventually, Milwaukee stormed back, taking the lead and never looking back. While Maxey was excellent, his supporting cast failed him. Payne scored 13 points, 11 of which came in his aforementioned hot spurt in the second quarter, Harris no-showed for the first 42 minutes of the game, got in a rhythm and then got hurt in a collision with Bamba and Antetokounmpo, Oubre cooled off, and none of the team's other role players were able to do anything of note on the offensive end of the floor.
It is already problematic to be reliant on one individual having a tremendous scoring game in order to win. What is even more ominous is watching that player shine and still losing.
