The Sixers fell in San Antonio to the Spurs Monday night, falling to the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. Joel Embiid led the way for Philadelphia, scoring 34 points along with 12 rebounds and four blocks as the Sixers had an opportunity to win with Victor Wembanyama exiting with an injury, but let it slip through their fingers.
Here’s what stood out.
Joel Embiid has a tendency to rise to the occasion when he faces a notable center, as he did tonight against Wembanyama. Although his superstar opponent exited at halftime and did not return, Embiid maintained his impressive performance throughout his 39 minutes in this game.
Even on the wrong side of 30, after multiple significant lower-body knee injuries, Embiid is still capable of pulling off moves that have never been seen by a player of his size. Against Wembanyama, a fellow unicorn, Embiid hit a step-back three-pointer that made one of the NBA’s largest players look like a nimble guard on the court.
His highlights in this game were incredible, even if they were undermined by the constant foul-grifting and turnovers from failed grifting. If a second Sixer had even a solid game, the Sixers would have been competitive in this game down to the final buzzer.
This matchup was a reminder of the many areas in which this Sixers team simply cannot compete with upper-echelon teams. The biggest problem for Philadelphia is that there is no single solution to their issues, which include a consistent lack of ball movement, shooting ability and lateral quickness — or, more accurately, lateral control.
Their inability to move the ball, which seems to be an unfortunate combination of a lack of ability and quality play design, causes their offense to hit a wall for sizeable stretches. Without any semblance of ball movement, the Sixers found themselves constantly dumping the ball to Joel, who would attempt to kick out when doubled, but between his own troubles finding the open man and his teammates' struggles to make San Antonio pay for doubling Embiid, it was like pulling teeth to get any sort of offensive advantage over the Spurs.
Defensively, the Sixers constantly hunt for turnovers but are consistently out of place thanks to poor gambles. Overcommitting is supposedly a feature, not a bug, of Nick Nurse’s defensive scheme, but it has consistently led to undisciplined play, with the Sixers even less capable of staying in front of their man, leading to easy buckets. Many Sixers struggle to control their speed and quickness, even laterally. Tyrese Maxey has shown this on both ends; rookie VJ Edgecombe is clearly working on using his athleticism responsibly, and others either move too quickly and find themselves out of position or react too slowly and are beaten by their man.
These issues will certainly bleed into the playoffs if the Sixers allow them to.
The Sixers are headed to Houston to have Kevin Durant and the Rockets. A win serves a dual purpose as the Sixers control the Rockets' first-round pick, but Houston has won six games in a row. They won’t go down quietly. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. Thursday night.
Unless otherwise stated, all stats included in this article are via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass, Basketball Reference or Team Rankings. All salary information via Spotrac.
