In a national TV matchup between Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, Bones Hyland usurped attention for himself by morphing into prime Steph Curry. That was one of the storylines of the night, the Denver bench catching temporary fire, while Georges Niang and company just couldn’t hit anything. Niang firing the second-to-last shot off the side of the backboard would have been a fitting way to end the game, but the cherry on top was him collecting his own rebound and then deciding to put up a two-point shot while down by three, instead of kicking out to a teammate:

It was a funky possession. Harden gets doubled and finds the open man. I thought Embiid might take that shot himself, but instead he fired it to Niang, who was 2-9 from three at that point. I think you have to give credit to JaMychal Green for sliding over there and contesting that shot, and Niang just seemed to have a brain fart in putting up that two when they really needed the kick out three. Rough game for him, surely on tired legs after playing well in Orlando the night before.

“Could’ve been (tired legs),” Doc Rivers said after the game, when asked about the lack of shot making. “Only guy I really struggled keeping in was Georges because I said it (earlier Monday), ‘I think Georges’ legs, I think he’s dead’ but then he’ll make one, you know, he might make a couple but they are scared to leave him, it opens the floor up for us, even on their open shots I’m telling you we could’ve gotten even better shots and I just thought we took the first available shot tonight, I thought we were very impatient after the first 12 minutes of the game.” 

That final possession was a fitting snap shot for a winnable game that ended up going down as a home L.

You could really boil it down to fourth quarter execution if you wanted to. Down 110-108 after a Hyland three, the Sixers missed three straight shots and then turned the ball over. Will Barton hit a foul shot to make it 113-110 and then the Niang sequence took place, and that was all she wrote.

“I think that first quarter we just came out and our spacing was great, we were just doing all the right things, transition defense,” said James Harden, who finished with 24, nine, and 11. “Second quarter was the opposite. Our spacing wasn’t great and we allowed them some easy points in transition. And to start that fourth quarter, we didn’t do what we needed to do on both ends of the court. So, they got confidence, made some big-time shots and we just tried to give ourselves a chance. We just couldn’t get it done.”

Transition defense was pretty gross in this game, and has been pretty gross for most of the year. Denver scored 29 fast break points and the Sixers are the third-worst transition team in the NBA, allowing 14.5 FBPS per game.

In addition to that, they just didn’t get Harden involved late. There’s a legit perimeter closer out there and yet he only took two fourth quarter shots, which Doc Rivers took responsibility for.

“I’ve gotta do a better job of getting him into the right places, the head coach said. “I felt that was part of the second actions, I felt that we had so many opportunities to swing it, swing it back to James, floor wide open and before we get it back to someone drove it and shot it, so we’ll figure it out.”

The Thuggish Ruggish Bones

Who is the best Bones? Is it Jon “Bones” Jones? Is it Bone Thugs and Harmony? Is it Dr. Temperance Brennan?

On Monday night, it was Bones Hyland, the Wilmington native who played college ball at VCU, despite being offered by La Salle, St. Joe’s, and Temple, among other Mid-Atlantic and Northeast schools. It was only the fourth time this year he scored more than 20 points and those timely three pointers just felt like daggers when you thought the Sixers were going to wrest control of the game from Denver.

Said Hyland after the game:

“Man, I probably had like 600, 700 people here. It  probably was way more than that. Just the people I was seeing, it was so many. But, just to come back to my hometown, close to my city, it’s 30 minutes away, and put on a show here, that’s a dream come true to me. I always say I’m the kid who wants to show the next kid in the city that this can be you in my position. Growing up, I never had somebody who can show me the ropes and that guidance. So, I want to be that guidance for the younger youth and keep leading and keep showing them that this can be done on this stage as well.”

There was also this, a reunion with the first responders who saved him from a house fire a few years back:

Awesome local story, though you’d prefer he go off against anybody other than the Sixers. Denver’s bench poured in 48 points while the Sixers bench only scored 14 points while hitting a grand total of four shots. That was the very odd thing about this game. When Jokic was in, Philly looked to be in control. Embiid was getting to his spots and doing his thing. Denver went on their runs when Joker was out of the game, which was bothersome. Very frustrating. I still think both guys are amazing, Embiid and Jokic, but to me I still think Joel has the better overall two-way game. Honestly, if you wanna hand both of them the MVP trophy, and cut it in half, or do a double reward, that’s fine with me. Both guys are so good and it feels like a privilege to watch them do their thing. The takeaway from this game was that Jokic has/had the better supporting cast. I don’t think the MVP needle moved in one direction or the other.

Anyway, if Bones keeps playing like this he’s gonna get paid: