March 31, 2024
Nick Turchiaro/USA TODAY Sports
Kelly Oubre Jr. has stepped up as a secondary scoring option for the Sixers all season, and it was no different Sunday night in Toronto.
Looking to get back in the win column after dropping their third consecutive contest on Friday night, the Sixers headed to Toronto for a Sunday evening matchup in which the Sixers were not only missing Joel Embiid, De'Anthony Melton and Robert Covington, but also Tyrese Maxey, who was bothered by a hip injury. Despite those absences, the Sixers were able to handle a lowly Raptors team to the tune of a 135-120 win. They also netted a franchise record 24 makes from long distance.
Here is what jumped out from this one:
Lowry will always receive a hero's welcome when he goes to Toronto, where he spent nine seasons and won a championship. His return is always a marquee event, no matter what team he is on. Lowry has already made a significant impact on the Sixers, particularly when it comes to helping out some of the team's younger players. One young piece who has credited Lowry with providing useful insight and instruction is Mo Bamba, whose minutes of late have been far better than they were before Lowry's arrival. Most specifically, Lowry has tapped into Bamba's potential as a lob threat. Given his height and tremendous length, it was hard to believe how infrequently Bamba was on the receiving end off alley-oops. But in recent weeks, Lowry and Bamba have connected on several alley-oops.
With Maxey sidelined, Lowry assumed the primary ball-handling responsibilities in this game, with Cam Payne starting alongside him but effectively acting as the backup point guard. Lowry showed instantly that he is still perfectly capable of running an offense as a point guard: after knocking down an early triple on his first shot of the game, he collected a trio of assists — one of which being a beautiful set-up to Paul Reed for an and-on — before connecting on another triple. Once the playoffs arrive, Maxey will be logging a massive amount of minutes. But it is comforting to know that whenever he sits or has the ball forced out of his hands, the Sixers have another steady, reliable floor general in Lowry.
Oubre has shown tremendous value for the Sixers in the absences of Embiid and Maxey, as he is one of the only players on the team who can consistently create shots — even if those shots are almost exclusively for himself. But after a tremendous start to the season from behind the three-point line, Oubre's shooting numbers have regressed rapidly in recent months.
In fact, entering this contest, Oubre was shooting just 25.7 percent from beyond the arc while taking five three-point attempts per game in the month of March. That sort of brutal efficiency at such massive volume is a wretched combination. Oubre's three-point percentage on the season dipped below 30 percent after Friday's loss, but in this one he was hot from beyond the arc from start to finish.
Oubre's primary skill is pressuring the rim. But in a playoff setting against the game's elite defenses, his potential weakness as a shooter could damage his chances of getting to the rim on a given possession. Forcing defenses to respect him as a perimeter threat will make it easier for him to do what he wants in the lane.
The Sixers' first-year head coach typically uses a nine-man rotation when injuries do not occur, but occasionally goes to 10 players. In Toronto Sunday night, he went to 10: his five starters (Payne, Lowry, Kelly Oubre Jr., Tobias Harris and Bamba) as well as rotation regulars Buddy Hield, Nic Batum, Paul Reed, KJ Martin and two-way guard Jeff Dowtin Jr.
Dowtin's inclusion was likely directly correlated to Maxey's absence: Nurse likes to have multiple ball-handlers on the floor as often as he can, and so Dowtin entered the game to play alongside Payne and Lowry. Martin, meanwhile, was used as a small-ball center against a Raptors lineup which exclusively featured guards and wings. Nurse has toggled back and forth between using Martin as a wing alongside Reed or Bamba and using him as a center, and it remains unclear exactly what Martin's optimal role is.
The quintessential Batum experience is watching him do all of the little things: the dirty work and the kind of stuff that does not necessarily show up in the box score. Every team needs a player like that, and there is no shame in impacting the game in ways that can only be visualized and not recorded statistically. But, every once in a while, it can be a relief to see that kind of player do things that actually are quantifiable.
Batum knocked down five triples, leading a stellar shooting performance for the Sixers from three-point territory, and scored the most points he has totaled in a game all season. He grabbed a handful of impressive rebounds, helped man the middle when the Sixers went extra small during their early fourth quarter run which closed the game, jumped the passing lane to get a steal on two different occasions, and still played the solid on- and off-ball defense that his game is predicated upon.
Payne, meanwhile, knocked down six triples, giving the Sixers a massive lift on the offensive end of the floor on a night where they needed multiple players to compensate for the loss of Maxey. After playing fewer than nine combined minutes during the team's last two contests, Payne made the most of his opportunity and left a lasting mark on the game.
Hield knocked down three triples and converted a few tough finishes around the rim — where he has often struggled recently. After a frustrating three-point shooting slump, it looks like things might be turning back around for Hield.
The Sixers do not need Batum to light it up as a scorer to win games, especially when they are at (relatively) full health. But it certainly will never hurt for someone with Batum's lightning quick trigger to go on a heater of sorts. Hield's role has continued to decline since his red-hot start to his Sixers tenure, and how he will fit alongside Embiid looms as the big question.
It is unclear how much Payne will play in the playoffs — if at all — when rotations shorten and starters see their workloads increase heavily. But on a night like this one, it was massive that in addition to Oubre and Lowry's exploits, Batum, Hield and Payne all came through.
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