Welcome
Tyrese Maxey scored 38 points on Halloween in another clutch time win for the Sixers, which gave Philadelphia a 3-0 record on the week. He has scored 207 points through seven games, which means only Allen Iverson has scored 200+ points in the first seven Sixers games of a season more than Maxey. Maxey’s minutes load isn’t cause for concern yet, even if his usage is up a tad from last year. Things should normalize as the Sixers maneuver its offensive approach.
The week began with Maxey’s big-time shots against Indiana. (NBA.com is how I typically add videos. They’re unavailable right now, but hopefully they’ll be back soon. For now, I’ll be sharing YouTube videos.)
But the Indiana game was far from easy. After leading by 15 nearing the end of the second quarter it felt like the Sixers would finally get a blow-out. But clunky offense to end the half (propped up by an Edgecombe half-court heave) left the Sixers with a 10-point lead. They couldn’t score in the third, finishing with 13 points. Meanwhile, the Pacers scored 36. It was the eighth game ever where a team scored 13 or fewer points in a quarter while allowing at least 36 points in the same quarter. And won. Two oddities from that list: LeBron James played for the Lakers in a comeback win over Portland in 2023 and the Sixers beat the Pacers after a first quarter that left Indiana with a 38-13 advantage in 2008, exactly two weeks after the Phillies championship parade. Thaddeus Young paced the Sixers with 25 points that night.
It ended in Charlotte as Maxey was the reason why the Sixers won the second back of the back-to-back. (Charlotte was also at a rest disadvantage.)
The offense needs to be better. They were 23rd in the league entering Sunday’s games. But racking up wins is important, and demonstrating an ability to win in crunch time should only help in the long haul.
Before diving into the big names, let’s give Dean Wade a shout.
Grayson Allen extended Charlotte’s lead to seven with 3:41 left. Jaylen Brown misfired, but Wade gathered the rebound and quickly passed to Simons, who promptly buried the triple. The Sixers outscored the Hornets 12-3 after that sequence. Wade has been exactly who the Sixers needed as a connector on offense and a menace on defense. He has had at least two steals in four of his five games played.
Three Things
During the early portion of the season, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, and Joel Embiid have made their presence felt as scorers down the stretch of wins. LeBron James helped in many areas, but scoring hadn’t been one.
That changed Friday night.
Philadelphia mostly controlled the game, which is why it was dispiriting when Jalen Brunson sunk a three that gave the Knicks a lead with 1:32 left.
LeBron’s response retook the lead for good.
It is nice to have LeBron James.
Anfernee Simons made at least five threes in each game. Only five players have had a longer streak with 5+ threes off the bench than Simons. His impact as a movement shooter was felt in the first game of the season, but then he hit a cold spell up until the Indiana game. He connected on 59.3 percent of his threes during this past week, which although isn’t sustainable is proof he’ll have a sizable influence on how this season goes as an essential offensive weapon. Shooters thrive alongside Joel Embiid. But Simons is more than a shooter. His experience in Portland gives the Sixers a viable self-creator to initiate offense. The scoring, however, is somewhat to be expected. It’s Simons’ defense that has been most encouraging. The effort has been clear. He finished with three steals on Halloween.
Joel Embiid has struggled to shoot the ball. He is at 40 percent from the field following a rough outing on Friday. Embiid made his first five attempts against the Pacers on Wednesday before finishing the game 4-12 and then went 3-12 on Friday night.
With the Sixers top-end talent, the days of Embiid having to do it all on offense are long gone. He’ll still be an offensive hub, though. He’s capable of scoring 30+ points. It’ll happen throughout the year. But every thing else he can do becomes more necessary. Embiid finished with seven assists against the Knicks. Five of which were dunks or layups, while the other two were threes. Good things happen with Embiid at the nail. A Simons-Embiid two-man action led to one of the threes. Embiid has historically worked well with shooters, so that should be a formidable relationship. Everyone knows how well the Maxey-Embiid two-man game functions. LeBron benefited explicitly from the attention Embiid drew on Friday. Embiid has reached six assists in three of the five games he has played. Last season he reached six assists in only seven games.
Milestone Tracker Interlude
LeBron James recorded 18 assists this week. He is 42 away from surpassing Jason Kidd for third all time.
Joel Embiid moved ahead of Billy Cunningham for sixth most points in franchise history during Wednesday’s win over Indiana. He is now 545 points away from fifth most, so this won’t be updated until he’s closer.
Dean Wade committed his first turnover of the season during Saturday’s win over the Hornets. He played over 126 minutes before doing so. The record for most minutes before committing a turnover seems to be Shane Battier. It is inexact research, but it is the best I could do. Javonte Green and Sam Houser each haven’t committed a turnover, so there is an outside chance they surpass this truly made-up record set by Battier during his final year.
Alas I will still keep track of Wade’s turnovers this year. He now has one in 139 minutes.
Week Ahead
The Sixers have four games, but fortunately there are no back-to-backs. All are against members of the NBA’s Central Division. The week begins and ends with the Bulls. A team that gave the Sixers trouble during the first part of last season, oddly enough. Sandwiched between Chicago are two teams the Sixers faced the first week of the season: Detroit on Wednesday and Cleveland in another NBA Cup matchup on Friday. The Sixer were swept by Detroit and Cleveland last season. Although they beat the Cavs in the home opener, the Pistons are the only team to beat the Sixers this year. Should be a fun week of basketball.
Stat of the Week
VJ Edgecombe made three threes over the weekend, but only two are worth words.
On Friday with 33 seconds left his straightaway, 28-footer became the dagger. The sequel happened less than 24 hours later via step-back. A one-point Sixer lead again turned into a four-point one. The opponent never surpassed the total Edgecombe provided the Sixers on those threes.
In his career Edgecombe has made 14 of his 26 three-point attempts (53.8 percent) in the clutch. (NBA defines such situations as in the 4th quarter and overtime when the score differential is five points or less with under five minutes to play.)
Feel swell, friends!
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