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What a nice win to celebrate the reunion of the 2001 team. How nice to have another nice and easy day watching the 76ers.
Philadelphia survived to beat the New Orleans Pelicans 123-114 Saturday night.
Joel Embiid, who was scorching in the first half again, led all scorers with 39 points along with 11 rebounds going 13-of-27 from the floor. Tyrese Maxey was quiet after the first, but put up 18 with eight assists on 7-of-18 shooting.
VJ Edgecombe had the assist of the night, having five of those while
finishing with 15 points shooting 6-of-10 from the floor. Kelly Oubre Jr. had a good first night trying to replace Paul George, scoring 19 points shooting 7-of-13 from the floor with nine rebounds and four assists. Saddiq Bey led the Pelicans with 34.
Philadelphia didn’t have any players unavailable due to injury but they were without PG, serving the first game of his 25-game suspension.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- It’s not a shock the Sixers heavily leaned into their reliable two-man game to start this one, with Maxey and Embiid taking the team’s first eight shots of the game. Both Derik Queen and Embiid seemed stoked for their matchup, looking to take each other down to the post frequently. For as much as the top two guys dominated the ball, Dominick Barlow deserves some love for this bounce pass he threw to Maxey to start a fast break.
- They continued to generate good looks, but were giving up ones just as good on the other end of the floor. The Sixers’ defense looked disorganized to start, missing rotations, losing cutters, and of course getting easily beat down the floor to create transition opportunities.
- The Pelicans’ other rookie Jeremiah Fears got to show off even more when he checked into the game, hitting his first three shots of the night, two of them coming from behind the arc. The Sixers were able to keep pace all quarter, but smoked a couple costly bunnies. Both Jabari Walker and Adem Bona each couldn’t finish some nice dump off passes, and the Sixers trailed by two after the first.
Second Quarter
- Without PG to lead the second unit, Nick Nurse had to switch up how he staggers the other starters. That meant Embiid was out there to start the quarter. Quentin Grimes returning to the lineup knocked Jared McCain down the totem pole — he didn’t check in until a couple minutes in.
- Trendon Watford got a lot of time to handle the ball in this stretch and he did a decent job with it. He got himself a layup driving to the basket and knocked down a three. McCain missed his first three of the night but hit his second, using Embiid as a screener to stepback into an open three.
- After allowing a wide open alley-oop to start the quarter the Sixers did sure up their defense a bit. The only field goal they allowed for nearly five minutes was a Yves Missi putback dunk after no one boxed him out. Embiid drew a charge on Zion Williamson and got quite the celebration from his bench in doing so.
- Nurse said he thought about lineups with both Embiid and Bona after their rebounding troubles in Sacramento, and he did so to close the half in this one. It was an interesting look defensively, with Bona somewhat playing safety roaming off Williamson. Embiid tried to fit him the ball in the dunker spot, but Oubre had to slam home the miss. Embiid had cooled off from the field but was living at the line in the second. His midrange jumper missed at the buzzer, but his 23 points powered the Sixers to a 13-point lead at the half.
Third Quarter
- A quick three from Bey followed by a Trey Murphy drive to set New Orleans up to have one of those classic third quarters against the Sixers. Oubre answered with a pair of threes to settle that down, the second one coming off a really slick behind the back pass from Edgecombe.
- The offense would eventually stagnate as they just got sloppy with the ball. On top of two Embiid turnovers they almost gave it away a couple more times just by dropping the ball. They went four minutes without scoring in the half court.
- It was just Bey doing damage for much of the quarter, but the Sixers started struggling to contain Murphy off the dribble as well. Maxey had gone quiet, scoring his first points since the first quarter. He got into a bit of a groove playing off of Watford, hitting a three and a layup to keep the Sixers lead at six.
Fourth Quarter
- The margin for error only got slimmer as Jose Alvarado opened up the quarter with a three. For as much as Watford had done offensively, it felt like Walker or especially Barlow were more up to the task of guarding Williamson. Watford picked up three quick fouls to start the quarter trying to do so.
- The offense did seem to find a groove again with McCain playing really well off of Embiid. He knocked down a couple more threes to round out a much needed good shooting night. Embiid himself got some jumpers to fall again, but they were suddenly in a spot where they needed to score every time down the floor. Walking into open three after open three, the Pelicans took their first lead of the game since early in the second.
- The Sixers finally got a stop, but they had to use a challenge to earn possession back after the ball rolled out of bounds. Embiid knocked down a jumper coming out of that timeout. Maxey and Barlow ran out to create a fast break off a missed three. A few trips later down the floor, Maxey pushed the lead to six with a three. Embiid and Edgecombe each did the same on the next two possessions, putting this game away.
