So, did they only tell Kelly Oubre Jr. the time of the game had been moved up?
The Sixers turned in their worst performance of the season, getting boat raced 130-93 by the Charlotte Hornets Monday afternoon.
Tyrese Maxey had perhaps the worst game of his career, finishing with just six points and six assists shooting 3-of-12 from the floor. VJ Edgecombe was only slightly better, putting up nine points on 2-of-11 shooting and six rebounds.
Oubre was the only Sixer to show up in the first half, leading them with 17 points, going 7-of-12 from the floor. Brandon Miller led all scorers with 30.
With this not being just the front, but the road end of a back-to-back, Joel Embiid and Paul George were both out with left knee injury management while Charlotte was only down Mason Plumlee.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- This shorthanded bunch certainly didn’t start as crisp with the matinee tip off. Of the Sixers’ first three baskets of the game, two of them were putbacks and two of them were also transition baskets. Oubre knifing his way through the paint for a right-handed layup was their first clean look of the day.
- They weren’t stopping Charlotte, who made eight of their first 10 shots of the floor with every member of their starting five getting involved. When the Sixers finally did get a good contest in the form of an Andre Drummond block, the loose ball found its way to Moussa Diabate who unexpectedly buried a long jumper to beat the shot clock.
- Jared McCain checked in late in the first, getting his first action in four games and first non-garbage time minutes in six. He was too long on his first three-point attempt and his second one just bounced on — both of those came on the same possession. Between his struggles and Quentin Grimes’ recent play, they are just getting no scoring production from the bench. Grimes shot 28% from three over his last 12 games coming into this one. While Grimes was able to draw a foul shooting one, it was Jabari Walker who hit their first three of the game with just over 30 seconds left, cutting the Hornets’ lead to six.
Second Quarter
- Even if it was Kon Knueppel, it was good to see McCain go right at a defender and transition for a layup. His next drive attempt though was blocked by Miles Bridges. He finally got a three to fall but an illegal screen by Drummond wiped it off the board. Defensively, the Sixers continued to get shredded off the dribble and gave up a ton of open baskets in the paint as a result.
- So many struggles start from the top, and it didn’t help that the Sixers’ offensive engine was off to another slow start. A 1-of-4 start saw Maxey start to defer a bit early. Checking back into the game, he came off a screen to get a three off and missed everything — it wouldn’t be his first airball of the quarter. They went over three minutes without a field goal before Edgecombe got on the board there with a three and a fast break dunk.
- The Hornets called a timeout to squash momentum and it worked. They immediately broke the Sixers’ full-court press for an open layup. After an Oubre three they scored on their next four trips down the floor. Trendon Watford checked into the game for the first time, got some good looking runners off the dribble, but couldn’t get either of them to go. His dunk attempt over Ryan Kalkbrenner went even worse. After playing a half that would have looked bad even for last year’s team, the Sixers went into the break trailing by 25.
Third Quarter
- Both teams picked right up where they left off with Miller coming off a screen to hit a wide open three and the Sixers following it up with Drummond missed free throws. Maxey shortly airballed another three. It feels pretty safe to say that he’s gassed at this point in the season. Not only is he still leading the league in minutes and minutes per game, but he’s played anywhere from one to five less games than the next four guys behind him.
- Only a few minutes into the second half and plenty were ready to shut Maxey and Edgecombe down for the night to finally get them some rest. That’s not typically Nick Nurse’s way though. He left both of them out there, but at least started to go deeper down his bench by throwing Justin Edwards out there for the first time.
- Both were finally pulled with a little over five minutes to go in the third. Even better, McCain was able to see the floor for some extended run. It was good to see the white flag finally be waved but falling down by 50 was still embarrassing. For as many blowouts as there are in the modern era only teams trying to lose every night like the Nets and Jazz have trailed by that much this season. McCain got himself another layup off the dribble but still struggled to build on that as the Sixers went into the fourth quarter in a 50-point hole.
Fourth Quarter
- Yeah by this point it was just Jared McCain watch, so here’s he finished out his day. He finally got a three to fall when Dominick Barlow swung it to him, but missed his next open attempt. He is a better shooter than the amount of open looks he’s missed, but the way he’s pressing to make up for that and his inconsistent minutes are more than enough to hamper that development. He was quiet for much of the quarter but got a few more threes up, getting two more to fall, finishing with 16 points shooting 6-of-13 from the floor and 4-of-8 from deep.
