Cade Cunningham used a big second half to lead the Pistons to a comeback win over the Sixers, with Philadelphia falling 111-108 in the second half of their weekend back-to-back. Tyrese Maxey led the Sixers with 33 points, but missed his shot to tie the game on a broken final possession out of a Nick Nurse timeout.
Here’s what I saw.
Role player night
When you’re asking your young stars to play the most minutes per night of anyone in the NBA, you are occasionally going to need role players to step up and carry you on dead legs nights. The second night of a back-to-back sure qualifies, because after Tyrese Maxey logged 43 minutes to get the Sixers a win vs. Toronto, he needed some help in the follow-up.
Jabari Walker had the highest expectations of Philadelphia’s two-way acquisitions in the offseason, but he has largely disappointed in his minutes to open the season, unable to get rolling from three and not impacting the game much on defense. He finally found his groove against Detroit, canning an open corner three to open his account from downtown for the season, and that gave him the confidence to step into a much more difficult transition three on the right wing. By the time halftime rolled around, Walker already had a smooth 12 points and five rebounds, leading Philadelphia in scoring for most of the half.
But it was his dirty work that earned Walker some starting nods early in the year, and that continued against a rough-and-tumble Pistons team that threw the Sixers around early in the game. He came up with three offensive rebounds in the first half, scoring a few quick buckets on second-chance possessions to bail out questionable guard decision-making and shot attempts. It never looks all that pretty, but Walker’s night was effective.
Frankly, I should not have waited this long to talk about their starting center. Andre Drummond was given a start on Sunday, well-earned given Adem Bona’s poor play to start the year, and he is giving far more than anyone could have hoped for after last year’s disaster season. This looks like the version of Drummond the Sixers were hoping to get when they brought him back to serve as both an elite backup to Joel Embiid and a credible fill-in starter. If this is the guy they get all year
I don’t think I can buy into Drummond’s current stretch-big act, at least not at the clip he’s knocking jumpers down at. Work has clearly been put in, and Drummond is stepping into those shots confidently, so I will absolutely give him his credit there. But here’s the key — hitting the occasional three only adds surplus value to the pressure he is putting on teams at both rims. The Pistons took a few fouls climbing on Drummond’s back for loose balls, and he did his job at the charity stripe to avoid that being a profitable decision.
Drummond also had to be part of the approach to slowing down Cade Cunningham, a genuine star guard and Detroit’s undisputed leader. The Sixers played high and hedged against Cunningham to force the ball out of his hands early in possessions, with Drummond doing a nice job of showing length at the point of attack before recovering back to the rim. He has always had active hands, if nothing else, but improved conditioning has allowed him to make far more plays at the rim and navigate the cat-and-mouse game better than he has in at least a couple of years.
(Unfortunately, Cunningham caught some momentum in the third quarter and never looked back, closing this game out in wildly impressive fashion. That just had little to do with Drummond’s contributions.
But even Bona had a handful of good moments in this game, blocking three shots and playing more disciplined defense than we’re used to seeing from him. Broadly, this was a very good game from the supporting cast.
Tough night to be a guard
Detroit still earned some wins in this game, doing a better job against Maxey for 2.5 quarters than any team has to date. Between Ron Holland and Ausar Thompson, the Pistons have a pair of long, menacing athletes to switch between top assignments on the perimeter, and they did a good job of denying Maxey the ball early in possessions and crowding him when he was able to eventually come back and get it. This is a tough defensive team, top-three in the league coming into the game, and you felt that.
It felt even more off-putting for Edgecombe, whose poor shooting nights have been starting to pile up over the last week or so. It has been noted in most of the recent recaps around here, but teams are getting him sped up and baiting Edgecombe into some wonky shot attempts inside the arc. The lack of balance on his midrange attempts has really jumped out at me, with Edgecombe doing a lot of leaning and fading, leading to inconsistent (read: bad) recent results.
Edgecombe’s play against pressure defense was one of the concerns on his college tape — at Baylor, he turned the ball over more than some of his contemporaries against traps and hard doubles. Though he has shown the early outlines of future plans against ball pressure, attempting behind-the-back moves in efforts to split the defense, they aren’t quite there yet. There were a lot of rookie mistakes in his game, from dribbling the ball off of his own foot to loose crosscourt passes, and he has to try to re-center himself to avoid this turning into a genuine slump.
(On another Edgecombe subject, he may be getting less money for his fouls around the basket than any player in the league right now. He will have to either learn how to foul someone with more intent to prevent the shot or pull his hands back altogether. As of right now, he’s giving away too many free throws with no benefit.
Compared to Edgecombe, Maxey has far more ways to work himself out of a rough start on offense than his rookie counterpart. Detroit lived in fear of his catch-and-shoot ability even in the midst of the slow start, and he was able to parlay that into some tough runners in the third quarter, slowly working himself into the game for what looked like it could be the closing kick. The Pistons did well to keep him from finding the lightning bolt scoring runs that have powered his start to the year, and generally prevented the Sixers from getting downhill pressure with any regularity. When the guards were able to beat initial pressure, they nearly always saw a second man waiting behind their defender, funneling shot attempts toward less dangerous Sixers threats.
Still, there was Tyrese Maxey was late in the game, hitting huge threes to keep Philadelphia within reach and streaking down the floor in transition for important free throws. It was a good fight from the young Sixers, just ultimately not enough.
#McCainWatch
Eric Gordon checked into Sunday night’s game ahead of Jared McCain, after McCain was a DNP in Saturday’s matchup with the Toronto Raptors. I wouldn’t call it panic time after this weekend, but McCain stockholders have to be feeling at least a little bit nervous.
It would be one thing if Nurse was choosing to go bigger with the rest of their rotation options and playing just the Maxey/Grimes/Edgecombe trio in the backcourt. Between Oubre, Justin Edwards, Watford, and Jabari Walker, Nick Nurse could make a positional size argument against a Detroit team that was killing them on the glass and running early in the game. But that argument went out the window when Gordon checked into the game as part of a three-guard lineup, doing little of consequence during his six first-half minutes.
McCain is still searching for his legs on offense as he adjusts to wearing a big, bulky knee brace, which he described at a recent practice as essentially dragging another leg around. After making a nice move to the basket in the second quarter, Jalen Duren sent his layup attempt into the second row, reminding McCain that game speed moves a little quicker than practice speed. But I was very encouraged by McCain’s activity on the defensive end, where his viability will be make-or-break if he hopes to get minutes alongside Maxey and Edgecombe. He had a steal on a blindside double of Duren, tipped away a couple more loose balls, and had good positional sense during his minutes, which is all you can really ask for in his second game post-injury.
When his minute restriction is not quite as tight, perhaps concerns about his spot in the rotation will disappear. For now, we keep an eye on further developments.
Other notes
— Horrendous final possession for the Sixers. Zero situational awareness from a team that spent 16 seconds to get one shot in a three-point game. Bad as it gets.
— This is probably a game that underlines how much of Philadelphia’s winning has depended on Kelly Oubre.
In the first half, he continued his outstanding run of play with a hot start vs. Detroit. Andre Drummond slapped the jump ball into the frontcourt on the opening tip, and Oubre ran onto it for the game’s first score, flushing his first two points to open the game. From there, he did what he has done in just about every game this season, offering an off-the-dribble threat from the wing that becomes more and more valuable deep in the shot clock. With multiple Pistons players battling foul trouble in the first half, Oubre did well to put pressure on Cade Cunningham and Duncan Robinson off the bounce, and he moved well as a cutter for a cheapie or two, though his night slowed down after halftime.
It was a bit more of an adventure in the second half, with Oubre struggling to make threes and unable to contribute much on offense otherwise.
— For the love of god, fellas, please stop fighting each other on defensive rebounds.
