What is the story about?
Another smashing success for the Sixers on national television.
Philadelphia was trounced 131-91 by the San Antonio Spurs Tuesday night.
They are 33-28, just a half game up and tied in the loss column with the Orlando Magic for the sixth seed.
Tyrese Maxey, playing 25 minutes before the white flag was raised, put up 21 points, eight rebounds and two assists shooting 8-of-19 from the field.
VJ Edgecombe left the game with lower back soreness after taking a hard fall right before halftime. He finished
with six points and four rebounds shooting 2-of-9 from the floor. Dylan Harper and Devin Vessell led all scorers with 22 points apiece.
On top of Paul George (suspension), the Sixers were also without Joel Embiid (oblique strain) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (illness).
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- The challenges of this matchup were on display from the jump with the Sixers’ first possession of the game ending up with Andre Drummond trying to post up Victor Wembanyama, with that attempt was easily blocked. Stephon Castle was all over Maxey. The Sixers needed to set hard screens for him to get a shot off. It took the Sixers over three minutes to score their first points of the game and nearly four to make their first field goal.
- Most teams guard Wemby with a strong wing who can get under him and push him around, but the Sixers matched up with him straight up with their centers. Drummond wasn’t tasked for that, but Adem Bona is a lot closer in size to guys that have had success. Bona didn’t clamp anyone up, but unlike Drummond he was able to guard Wemby away from the basket without him attacking like a shark that smelled blood.
- It’s surprising that this changed when Bona entered the game, but cutting down on those fouls was big as the Spurs’ start was fueled by free throws. The Sixers got some life offensively as the benches started to trickle in, including Justin Edwards coming back into the rotation and hitting his first two threes of the night. After working all quarter to tie the game back up, they surrendered a quick run at the end of the period to trail by seven.
Second Quarter
- Luke Kornet had a hard foul on Bona that was upgraded to a Flagrant 1, so here’s the joke everyone’s going to make. Shoutout to Tony.
- Another reserve who hit two quick threes was Cam Payne, who also knocked down a couple of floaters to hit the Sixers’ first three field goals of the quarter. It wasn’t enough for how much Harper was cooking them on the other end. He dropped 14 points in the first half, shooting the three as well as having success on slashes and drives.
- Something the Spurs have figured out so well is how to throw Wemby on a non-shooter so he can just roam around the paint. With how often the Sixers play two-non shooters, like Drummond and Dominick Barlow for instance, it makes their job so much easier. Drummond got one putback but him trying to post-up ate a lot of possessions, both because of his inability to get a shot off and his teammates inability to get an entry pass in there. He gave Wemby a hard shove to pick up his third foul, which forced the Sixers to finally try a smaller lineup.
- The Spurs are also a team that will make you pay for lazy passes over the middle of the court, and they got multiple pick-6s to go on a 16-0 run, drawing hearty boos from the crowd in the process. They did have one thing to cheer for when Edgecombe plucked a steal and threw a behind-the-pack pass for the fast break Maxey dunk in one motion.
- The only thing that could have made this half worse was an injury, and there was a scary play on the very last play of the first. Carter Bryant blocked Edgecombe’s heave from behind, fouling him in the process. All that motion made Edgecombe hit the ground pretty hard. He took a second to get up and was limping quite a bit as he sunk two of the three free throws before the half. At halftime he was ruled out for the night as the Sixers fell behind by 25.
Third Quarter
- It was unlikely to really change things, but the Sixers at least course corrected a little bit by starting the second half with Bona instead of Drummond. Maxey was able to find a little more driving space, but that felt like a product of everyone taking their foot off the gas.
- Maybe the Spurs had eased up on their defensive intensity, but they were still scoring at will on the other end. It was easy for Vassell to stay red hot beating the Sixers down the floor every time for open transition threes.
- Maxey finally checked out for the night a little over halfway through the third, which still felt five minutes too long. The crowd got restless as the Spurs pushed the lead past 30 and 40 points, booing at random moments when guys were bringing up the ball up the floor. After a typical third quarter for this team’s standards, the Sixers were down by 49.
Fourth Quarter
- The only thing still worth watching for at this point was to get a glimpse of the two-way guys, Tyrese Martin and Dalen Terry. It wasn’t very encouraging to see things like Trendon Watford get stuffed by Kelly Olynyk at this point in the game. Jabari Walker, who probably should be more in the rotation than he is at the moment, was the only one with a pulse here, dropping 20 in the fourth. It really speaks to how thin this roster is that they have lost multiple games in the last month like tonight, the Knicks game, Charlotte by worse margins than teams trying to lose on purpose.
