What is the story about?
It’s never a good sign to lose the Kelly Oubre Jr. revenge game.
The Sixers split their back-to-back, falling 116-110 to the Phoenix Suns Tuesday night.
Tyrese Maxey’s slump continued, going for 20 points, shooting 7-of-25 from the floor along with seven assists. VJ Edgecombe did seem to thrive with more on-ball opportunities, leading the Sixers with 25 points on 10-of-21 shooting.
Oubre built on his strong performance from the night before, putting up 21 points going 6-of-15 from the field while Devin
Booker led all scorers with 27.
After playing the night before, Joel Embiid missed this one with right ankle injury management while Paul George missed both legs with left knee injury management.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- Trying to pick up right from the night before, Oubre got in front of the first pass of the game to Booker, picked it off and took it down the floor for a layup. It turns out that type of defense wasn’t required for the opening minutes of this one as the two teams proceeded to miss the next 10 field goals attempted.
- The Sixers did open up really well defensively — Oubre was clinging to Booker and his teammates followed suit. At the same time the Suns couldn’t buy a shot. They took four and a half minutes to make their first field goal, clanging multiple open jumpers. The Sixers had plenty of bricks themselves but were able to take advantage of some of them. Eight of their first 11 points were second chance points with Andre Drummond pulling down two early offensive rebounds.
- The first player to find any sort of offensive rhythm early was Edgecombe. He hit a three off the catch early but began to really do damage with his midrange turnaround. He’s gone to that look in his aggressive spells this year and with some guys out there was ample opportunity. On three straight possessions Edgecombe knocked one down, getting up to 10 first quarter points.
- Oubre pitched in with a couple corner threes and Justin Edwards, getting his first real minutes since December, hit one as well. Speaking of rotation notes, it’s worth pointing out that even with this shorthanded group, Jared McCain didn’t any first half minutes. No one shot that well for Phoenix, but they were able to get to the line 11 times, and a Jordan Goodwin layup to cut the lead to three right before the buzzer.
Second Quarter
- Edwards hasn’t looked good really doing anything this year, so it was good to see him also get a basket in the lane off the dribble to open the quarter. Maxey finally made a field goal after missing his first five, but those baskets were suddenly not keeping pace with the Suns who had found their three-point shot. They hit one from deep on four straight possessions to take their first lead of the night and prompt a Sixers timeout.
- Some starters returning to the game helped the Sixers stabilize, but this time it was Oubre whose presence flipped the game. He subbed back in and immediately went right to the hoop, earning himself a trip to the line. Moments later he knocked down another three that had capped off a 7-0 run.
- The Suns’ shooting continued to be incredibly streaky, having another flurry after a four minute scoring draught, but they did find one matchup working well for them. Oso Ighodaro had 10 in the half going 4-of-5 from the floor, most of those just getting wide open as the roll man in basic actions. While the Sixers again didn’t close the half well to trail by four at the break, it wasn’t before another incredible highlight from Edgecombe happened in transition.
Third Quarter
- The two best Sixers’ from the first half continued their play out of the break to fuel a 13-2 run Sixers run. Oubre immediately got to the line again and knocked down another three moments later after nice kickout from Maxey. Edgecombe hit another from deep and continued to have success off the dribble, driving into a floater as well.
- Led by Booker, the Suns had another jump shooting surge that erased all the damage the Sixers had just done. A defensive miscommunication that left him wide open seemed to get his three-ball going, but the Suns also did a good job using screens to get him plenty of open looks off the catch.
- As hard as stops were to come by, the Sixers’ offense was struggling even more so. Maxey couldn’t get anything to make things an uphill battle, but there was hardly any outside shooting team wide either. Outside of Oubre and Edgecombe the rest of the Sixers had only made two three-pointers on 12 attempts. After that run to start the third which gave them a seven-point lead, the Sixers were outscored 38-16 by the Suns in the rest of the quarter, falling down by 13 in the process.
Fourth Quarter
- Despite the hole they had to climb out of, the Sixers continued to get beat down the floor and allow the Suns to walk into open shots. It also continually looked like they didn’t have the offensive firepower to pull this one out. Edgecombe’s pull-ups hardly made up for Maxey missing open shots off the catch and Barlow and Drummond getting eaten alive inside.
- Things really started to compound when Edgecombe was wrongly called for a backcourt violation. Nick Nurse pled his case that the ball actually went off Jalen Green’s foot, but all that did was give the Suns an extra point thanks to a technical foul.
- That being said, the Suns lead only got as high as 17, leaving the Sixers plenty of time if they could get some quick stops and buckets. Thanks to a block and a steal, they got just that while Maxey and Grimes each converted threes on the other end. A putback layup from Adem Bona cut the lead to seven with three minutes to go as the Suns called timeout.
- After two minutes trading two points back and forth, the comeback hopes weren’t dead but were on life support. Edgecombe airballing a three and Maxey missing a clean look at the rim did quite a lot to bury those hopes though. Fittingly, when the Sixers challenged the following out of bounds play to get the ball back, the challenge ended up getting Oubre called for a foul.
