The 14-11 start for the Sixers this season has been a breath of the freshest air possible compared to the disaster that was last season. If there was one thing the encouraging start lacked, it was a win
over a quality opponent. Their best chance for that came when they took on the newly crowned NBA Cup champion New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden Friday.
Not only did they come out of a hostile environment with a 116-107 win, but they did so in perhaps the most encouraging way possible. The game was taken over in the fourth quarter by the Sixers’ three young guards they’ve drafted. Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Jared McCain scored all but one of Philly’s field goals in the quarter, pulling away from a tight game that the Knicks didn’t even bother fouling with under a minute left.
“We played very well tonight,” head coach Nick Nurse said after the game. “I think if I look at it, just about everybody who hit the floor had a good game tonight.”
Maxey’s dominance, especially down the stretch in games, is certainly nothing new. The Garden felt that way as well, gasping every time he pulled up for a deep three and letting out a sound of defeat every time he buried one. He shot 6-of-12 from behind the arc in the game.
For once, Maxey didn’t have to put the whole team on his back to get them over the finish line. It’s been a struggle for McCain to stay on the floor consistently since he returned from an 11-month absence. He’s only averaging 17 minutes a game this year and has been subject to a lot of three- or four-minute shifts.
He was only 3-of-8 from the inside the arc, but looked as comfortable getting his shots there than he had all season. Being trusted to close out a game for the first time this season was not lost on him either.
“It’s amazing,” McCain said. “I feel like, even when I was out there for the last few minutes, I was like, ‘Damn, I’m finishing a game, I feel like it’s been a while,‘ so, [I was just] trying to do my best defensively to stay on the floor and I know the offense will come.”
Edgecombe hasn’t had the same issue of staying on the floor, but his aggressiveness has waned playing next to Maxey. In the two recent games Maxey missed, Edgecombe put up his first 20-point games in well over a month.
That was not the case in this one — and it certainly wasn’t down the stretch. After Maxey and McCain controlled the Sixers’ offense for much of the fourth, Edgecombe began to hunt his shot, and put the game away doing so. After nailing a couple of pull-up jumpers, he insanely rose up to put back a missed Maxey floater.
“I think it was great,” McCain said. “We were trying to get the mismatch and whether it’s me or VJ, we can set the screen and just play out of it. We all know how to play and we have high IQ, whether it’s Rese getting off the ball and someone else setting the screen for him or someone else in the corner, it’s hard to stop when it’s all shooters around.”
Edgecombe’s heroics were only more impressive given that he was being asked to guard Jalen Brunson for much of the game. Brunson shot 1-of-10 when guarded by Edgecombe and went scoreless in the fourth quarter.
“He’s a tough player, everyone knows he’s super good,” Edgecombe said. “I just try to make it difficult. You’re not gonna hold him scoreless, but try to make it difficult.”
Nurse has praised Edgecombe’s ability to fight over screens all season, and was especially impressed with his effort in this one.
Edgecombe says the key to that is both the combination of skill and determination.
“Everyone’s just [like] when you see the screen coming, you’ll be like ‘Oh switch!’” he said. “It’s just like, wanting to do it. You got to put in the effort, and me knowing who I’m guarding also. You know an elite player, someone that thrives off coming off ball screens, he’s really good coming off ball screens so I was just trying to make it difficult for him.”
The young backcourt has shown plenty of encouraging flashes this season. For it all to come together in the same game though is a new level of excitement.
