Lost in the glare of Carson Wentz’s dazzling Monday night display was an equally impressive performance from a young 76ers squad.

Monday’s win was crucial in more ways than one, not only because it ended a three-game losing streak, but because it was a road win against a team that’s probably going to be competing with the Sixers for a postseason berth.

The Pistons are in that seven to ten range this year. Nobody expected the Sixers to win in Washington or Toronto, but if they’re making the playoffs this season they need to consistently beat clubs like Detroit, Orlando, Charlotte, and Indiana. Last night was a good first step, and a critical “W” ahead of looming trips to Texas and the West Coast.

Ben Simmons was brilliant, Joel Embiid looked rested and decisive, and Markelle Fultz is a huge concern. Right now the three future stars are running at 66% capacity, so sky is the limit for this team if Fultz can figure it out.

 

1) Embiid’s presence

Was it the hair style? Did the cornrows ruin everything? Embiid looked like a different player while quietly putting up 30 and 9.

Andre Drummond got his numbers last night, but he had a much more difficult time doing it. This wasn’t like the 21 and 12 performance he had against a soft Knicks team on Saturday night, a game where he shot 9 for 11 and dominated around the rim.

By my count, Drummond only had one offensive board while Embiid was on the floor in the first half. His first put-back came with Amir Johnson in the game around 3:42 in the first quarter. When Embiid returned, he deflected a lob that would have been a surefire dunk. Nothing was easy, and Embiid’s defense speaks for itself.

Offensively, they got him the ball down low, but he was also willing to take it there himself. He showed good awareness in when to pop and when to roll, which you see in these back-to-back clips:

Pop for the three-pointer? Check.

Roll to the rim? Check.

In that second play, I feel like the Embiid we saw against Boston would have popped back to the three-point line and tried to shoot over Reggie Jackson instead of taking it to the rim. Good on him for seeing the opportunity to slide in there and beat Drummond to the hoop:

He was a step ahead of Drummond all night long and you saw it in those clips. The assertive Embiid who is willing to drive it to the rim is much more dangerous than the Embiid who wants to only pop for three pointers.

 

2) Simmons the star

It took him all of four games to record his first triple-double.

Simmons hit a nine footer and a 16-footer and missed from 11 feet and 15 feet. He took more of his mid-range looks, which is a really good thing to see.

One thing he’s adding, and knocking down, is that one-handed floater and jump hook in the paint, which is going to be incredibly hard to defend when he can use his 6’11” frame to just rise up over rim protectors and release the ball. Maybe that’s the sort of intermediary shot that links his finishing at the hoop with a still-developing mid-range game.

Plays like this won’t be guardable:

He’ll get to that spot every single time, then rise up over pretty much anyone who is matched up on him.

And if the defense does collapse, he’ll continue to employ a skill that’s already elite, which is his ability to dish it back out for easy looks behind the arc.

Check out the positioning here, where four of five Pistons are in the paint and two Sixers are waiting for the kick out:

That’s gravity for ya.

There’s also this, a challenged shot, a defensive rebound, a stripe-to-stripe run, and a pull-up jumper that basically exhibits every strength in one clip:

People were gushing about that play on social media, for good reason.

 

3) Bench scoring 

Problem is, the offense completely falls apart when Simmons isn’t out there.

They only got 20 off the bench last night. Embiid and Simmons combined for 51 points on 19-26 shooting. We already know Joel is going to be limited with back-to-backs and Simmons can’t play 48 minutes a game, so they need someone else to step up here. T.J. McConnell had a crucial three-pointer down the stretch and Dario Saric added seven points but didn’t shoot it that well. The entire Sixers bench went 7-26 while going 3-6 from the foul line.

Brett Brown started the second half with Embiid, Simmons, Saric, Robert Covington, and JJ Redick on the floor. That was a bit of a different look. He’ll have to figure out how to get the second unit moving, and it mostly revolves around…

 

4) Markelle Fultz 

16 minutes, 2 points on 1-4 shooting, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers.

He subbed in for Jerryd Bayless with nine minutes left, got two minutes with the “first team,” and then dribbled the ball off his foot and out of bounds. Later he passed up an open three-point attempt to try a shorter baseline jumper, which he missed:

There was another sequence where he forced a drive to the rim and banked a wild effort off the backboard. He didn’t shoot a foul shot.

The most concerning thing is that Fultz looks hesitant and uninvolved. He’s not moving well without the ball, he’s not asking for it, and he’s not shooting when he does get it. It’s one thing if he’s being assertive and still missing shots, but he can’t seem to get the first foot through the door. I don’t know if you play him more minutes and try to force out the funk, or sit him down entirely to let him reset mentally, but it feels like there’s no middle ground here.

 

5) Pick and roll to win

When things got hairy late, you saw some really nice Sixer possessions, which is a key part of the learning curve. They need experience in close, fourth quarter games.

They killed the Pistons with a pair of three-pointers that came on the same exact sequence from opposite sides of the court. Watch the pick and roll, the collapsing defense, and the cross-paint pass for the corner player:

McConnell knocked down that open look with 6:04 on the clock.

On the very next possession, about 30 seconds later, they hit it again, with Simmons finding McConnell on the other side of the floor and T.J. deciding to swing it back to Covington for the bucket:

https://youtu.be/gY7jG1ri5tQ?t=7m46s

Looks familiar, right?

It’s Deja Vu all over again:

It was just deadly stuff, and really nicely organized by all five players on the court. If the Sixers can get that kind of production from Simmons and Embiid while continually learning how to put together meaningful fourth quarter possessions, they’re going to beat a lot of average teams and compete with the better ones in the league.

Let’s do the fun tweets now!