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82 Wins and 0 Losses – 18 Immediate Takeaways from Sixers 114, Cavaliers 106
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For the second game in a row, the Sixers only played one good half of basketball.
And they’re 2-0, this time taking out a Cleveland Cavaliers team that went to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. That’s after dispatching the defending champion New York Knicks inside of Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. Both of those squads returned cores that went far, while the Sixers were in Game 2 with a bunch of new faces.
This time, they erased a 29-point first half deficit with an insane third quarter, going on a 37-21 run to cut the lead to eight. Then they completely trounced the Cavs in the fourth quarter, outscoring them 32-16 and executing well down the stretch for a 114 to 106 win.
It’s fair to say that the Sixers have only play four decent quarters of basketball through two games. What happens if they put it all together, and play a complete game?
WHAT A COMEBACK!
Now we go, to the takeaways:
1) No issue with the booing of James Harden. The guy disappeared / quit on the Sixers in Game 7 back in 2023. He had nine points in 41 minutes and withered on the vine along with everybody else.
2) Little bit of a different sub pattern early. Nick Nurse took Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown out about halfway through the first quarter, subbing in KCP and Anfernee Simons. That linked together the Embiid and LeBron minutes for just a couple of ineffective possessions until Maxey and Brown came back in with Adem Bona. Same personnel usage overall, though. Jabari Walker just got a few minutes in what amounted to basically an eight-man rotation. No doubt, Nurse will expand the rotation for this weekend’s back-to-back with Milwaukee and Detroit.
3) Tim Legler was right about the 1st quarter, which featured eight Sixers turnovers. Not enough action(s) in general. Too much perimeter passing and settling for threes. They did the same thing at times on Tuesday night.
Not sure how it’s even possible but the Sixers allowed 10 points off turnovers and 20 points in the paint in the first quarter alone.
4) Not sure what was going on with the arena visuals. What the hell? It seemed like the TV white balance was off, or the lights were too bright. Something was funky. The court looked really shiny with light reflecting off of it, creating these long streaks of blue and white scoreboard images. It was like being a wide receiver and dealing with the sun glare down in Jerry World.
5) Speaking of goofy:
6) Good snapshot of the first half –
V.J. Edgecombe had the world’s easiest alley oop here and decided for some reason to try to Euro step two guys, which resulted in a shot that went off the backboard and didn’t even hit the rim:
7) First half was piss poor. 69 points given up. 15 turnovers. Couldn’t hit a shot. The offense looked boring and static. Didn’t protect the ball, didn’t attack the rim, didn’t block shots or steal the ball. But other than that, it was great!
8) Kinda feel bad for this guy:
9) What changed in the third quarter? Everything, really, but it starts with the defensive effort. Same exact thing as Tuesday night in New York. Getting stops and getting out in transition. Tyrese Maxey playing assertive and downhill basketball. It was a 33-15 quarter when Nick Nurse took Maxey, Embiid, and Brown off the floor, which resulted in a Lebron/Edgecombe/Simons/Bona/KCP lineup. They pulled LeBron and Edgecombe pretty quickly to put Maxey and Brown back out there.
10) Feels like we’re gonna ride the rollercoaster whenever Adem Bona is in the game. The Bona-coaster? He’ll commit some ridiculous foul from being too handsy, or get cooked on one possession, then he’ll give you a really nice defensive sequence two seconds later. The highlight of his night was that chase-down block on Donovan Mitchell that resulted in Maxey getting an easy runout for a layup.
11) They were down 24 at the half and down 8 at the end of the third. Success!
12) It’s weird with Embiid. There are times when it looks like he’s not moving well at all, doesn’t seem like a good fit for this team. You’re thinking, “what if they had a younger, more mobile rim runner instead?” Then he’ll give you a couple of possessions of good rim protection where he’s not necessarily blocking shots, but putting guys off just enough to force some misses. That’s probably the best thing he can do for this team, at least right now.
But then he turns back the clock almost out of nowhere, and has a couple of offensive possessions like the ones you saw near the 7-minute mark in the fourth. Embiid goes right into the paint with bully ball, to great effect. There’s still an MVP-caliber player in there somewhere. You see the flashes here and there.
13) Thought Edgecombe had some good defensive hustle and rebounding moments in the second half. There were a few times in which the bigs got up for contested rebounds, the ball popped loose, and VJ came in to clean things up.
14) Brown’s fourth quarter stretch was beautiful. Assertive mid-range stuff. Not overthinking it, just seeing, reacting, and attacking. He had 21 points on 10-20 shooting.
15) 104-97, coming out of the timeout Nick Nurse draws up a double-stagger for Edgecombe that turns into a funky iso. Thought that was kind of strange considering how well Brown and Maxey were playing at the time.. Edgecombe was 4-8 at that point and hadn’t been super-involved offensively.
16) Not totally sure about that call on Harden that was overturned late. Legs noted that Embiid had the right arm in there first, before Harden did his typical rip through and hooked Joel on the way up.
17) Mitchell was 6-7 from the foul line before he missed BOTH with just about a minute left in the fourth quarter. That felt like the ballgame right there, didn’t it? Maxey went rim attacking on the very next possession to extend the lead and more or less put it away.
18) Great signs so far in the clutch moments of the game, which is defined as plus or minus five points with five minutes or less remaining. It sure seems like the Sixers are just going to play high middle pick and roll with Maxey as the ball handler, then they’ll bring up a different screener based on the defensive matchup they’re getting. Embiid was the screener on Tuesday night, and there was a Jaylen Brown screen in the fourth quarter of this game. It’s simple stuff, but requires high-level execution and Tyrese has been great with it so far.
bonus takeaway #19 – if the Sixers defend and attack downhill, they will go 82-0. When they stand still and pass the ball around the perimeter, they stink. When they drive and get out in transition, they look like the 1992 USA Olympic Team.
edit: this wasn’t my best takeaways post, my kids wouldn’t go to bed and kept yapping
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com