April 06, 2024
Petre Thomas/USA TODAY Sports
Despite some struggles with turnovers, Joel Embiid dominated the Memphis Grizzlies en route to his third straight victory since returning from injury.
Looking to notch their fourth win in a row for the first time since January, the Sixers headed to Memphis Saturday night for the first leg of the team's final back-to-back of the season against the Grizzlies. Tobias Harris remained out with a knee injury and the still-recovering De'Anthony Melton and Robert Covington were also on the shelf, but the Sixers had the luxury of having a relatively clean bill of health -- something the Grizzlies could not possibly dream of. The Sixers handled the Hospital Grizzlies, 116-96. Here is what jumped out from the win:
• The Sixers have often been short-handed and faced banged-up teams this season, but none of it compares to Saturday night's Memphis Grizzlies. The 27-50 Grizzlies have been decimated by injuries all season, to the point that they had 13 different players ruled out for this game -- yes, 13. That includes their entire projected optimal starting lineup -- Ja Morant, Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane, Santi Aldama and Jaren Jackson Jr. -- and, if your math needs some work, eight additional pieces. They had only eight players available, and of those eight players only one -- Brandon Clarke -- came into the game carrying significant NBA experience.
• Joel Embiid put together five consecutive points in the opening minutes of this one on two jumpers: a long two-pointer and a three from the top of the key. Embiid did not shoot the ball particularly well in his first game back from injury, but in Thursday night's critical victory over the Miami Heat, the reigning NBA MVP was on fire from the perimeter, knocking down several jumpers including three triples. Embiid appears to be in pretty excellent conditioning, all things considered, but as he works his way back into peak physical shape, it is quite a luxury for the back-to-back reigning NBA scoring champion to have such a reliable shooting stroke.
• Speaking of Embiid's impressive physical condition -- which Sixers head coach Nick Nurse lauded Embiid for working tirelessly while he was out to maintain -- it has been perhaps most apparent on the defensive end of the floor. Nurse has spoken at length about the significant strides the Sixers have made on that end of the floor in recent weeks without Embiid, but inserting one of the game's truly elite defensive stalwarts amid that progression has the Sixers looking not only tremendous as a defensive unit, but cohesive. Embiid had an impressive swat of Memphis big man Trey Jemison at the rim early in the second quarter of this game, the kind of play we have become accustomed to seeing from Embiid.
• Heading into this season and during the early portions of the NBA calendar, there was a hope that Embiid and his backup, Paul Reed, would be able to coexist. Embiid has been able to thrive alongside athletic bigs in the past -- hello, Richaun Holmes -- and with what was at the time a suspect bench, combining the team's two best bigs seemed reasonable. One blockbuster trade later, the idea went out the window. But Nurse appears to have kept the idea in the corner of his mind: with two minutes left in the first half, Embiid returned to the game, but Reed did not hit the bench. The two shared the floor for 126 seconds, and in that short time the Sixers outscored the Grizzlies by nine points. Perhaps something to file away for later.
• As stellar as Embiid's showing was, he did have one weakness, and it was ball security. Embiid committed his eighth turnover of the game on his first touch of the second half, a traveling violation on a play where he likely could have settled for an open jumper without needing to shuffle his feet. That eighth turnover tied his season high -- which he set in January's contest on the road against the Golden State Warriors in the game in which he suffered the meniscus injury that kept him out for more than two months. It is hard to be too concerned, however, because this was perhaps the perfect storm for Embiid to struggle with turnovers: he is still getting his bearings playing at game speed and was going up against a defense desperate to make plays via aggressive coverages and double-teams. Still, it is something worth monitoring moving forward.
• Buddy Hield's role has seemingly diminished with every passing game, and his performance has as well. Hield entered this contest shooting just 32.1 percent from beyond the arc over his last 11 games, and his extended slump continued Saturday night. It has always been the team's hope that Hield would be optimized while playing alongside Embiid -- a reasonable expectation given the success Embiid has had with similar sharpshooters like JJ Redick and Seth Curry -- but time is running out for the two to become acquainted with one another, and Hield is simply not doing enough to justify the kind of increase in playing time that could help him develop chemistry with Embiid.
• With the Sixers maintaining a healthy lead for nearly the entirety of the game and the second leg of the back-to-back in San Antonio looming on Sunday evening, Nurse was able to spot some of his key pieces some rest down the stretch of this one: with a few moments remaining in the third quarter, he inserted Jeff Dowtin Jr. into the game. At the start of the fourth quarter, two-way wing Ricky Council IV checked into the game. Because of the implications each and every game has on the race to avoid the Eastern Conference's Play-In Tournament for the remainder of the regular season, rest will be hard to come by despite its obvious additional value late in the season. Taking care of business early on was a major boon for the Sixers.
