3 observations after McCain and Maxey led the Sixers to victory with electric shooting originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Sixers finally have a non-overtime victory under their belt.
Jared McCain and Tyrese Maxey played Friday night and the Sixers earned a 113-98 victory over the Nets at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Sixers improved to 3-12 and the Nets fell to 6-10. In the East A group of the NBA Cupthe Sixers and Brooklyn are 1-2.
McCain was incredible once again, recording his seventh straight 20-point game. He scored 30 and Maxey scored 26 on 11-of-17 shooting.
Nets forward Cam Johnson scored 37 points and shot 9 of 13 from three-point range.
The Sixers were down Joel Embiid (left knee swelling)Paul George (left knee bone bruise) and Kyle Lowry (right hip sprain).
They will host the Clippers on Sunday evening. Here are some observations from the team’s win against Brooklyn:
The Sixers turn to Yabusele at center
After an evening of 5 for 6 at three points Wednesday in a loss against the GrizzliesGuerschon Yabusele started at center. He started the night on former Sixers All-Star Ben Simmons, who, predictably, was booed on every touch. The crowd reacted joyfully when Simmons missed a wide-open layup in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Yabusele kept the flow of good jumpers flowing, draining two early three-pointers. He finished the night with 10 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
“The problem with him is he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “He’s solid, first of all. And then he’s also a good three-point threat, as he did to start the game. I thought that gave us a nice boost.
“He also has a very good pair of safe hands to transfer the ball. He plays very hard. He bounces. He’s a smart guy, he plays hard and he’s really tough. And you add that he can post here and there and throw a three… he plays well.
Kelly Oubre Jr. returned to the Sixers’ starting lineup after three straight games on the second unit. He skied high to slam a Yabusele miss to give the Sixers a 13-4 lead.
The Sixers used a 10-man rotation and played Andre Drummond against Nets big man Nic Claxton.
Drummond was good in his first stint, knocking down rebounds and troubling the Nets with his physical presence. One of Drummond’s three offensive rebounds led to a corner three by Reggie Jackson. A McCain-Drummond alley-oop extended the Sixers’ lead to 44-33.
Turnovers and free throws are crucial
In his second game since returning from a right hamstring injury, Maxey played 26 minutes. He had a much better night than his 3-for-13 game in Memphis.
McCain was the last Sixers starter to score a field goal. At the end of the first quarter, he lost three consecutive points.
McCain remained very precise in terms of moving the ball quickly, spotting open teammates, and moving cleverly to fruitful spots. Over his last eight games, he’s averaged 9.6 three-point attempts and shot 45.5 percent from long range.
“He’s good at basketball, man,” Maxey said of McCain. “He’s not afraid. When you’re fearless like that and you have that type of confidence, it’s a good feeling. We need it. We need him to be that guy all season long.
“There will be different times where he has to play different roles – with Jo in there, with P in there, with me in there – but he has to be that guy who is not afraid, who can make shots, who can play defense and I kind of play a lot of different roles.
Turnovers and free throws were the Sixers’ two main statistical advantages early on. They held a 15-7 halftime advantage in points off turnovers and made the first 14 foul shots of the game. Johnson torched them throughout the night, but the Sixers at least did well to avoid giving up easy points and stopping their momentum at the foul line.
Still, the Sixers held Brooklyn up 12-2 to close the first half. Johnson’s fifth three-pointer cut the Nets’ deficit to 53-50.
Maxey and McCain deliver again and again
The Sixers’ trend of terrible third quarters looked set to continue on Friday. With threes from Cam Thomas and Dorian Finney-Smith, Brooklyn built a 64-55 lead.
Maxey and the Sixers pushed back, however. The All-Star guard celebrated demonstratively after an and-one field goal that put his team back on top.
The Sixers fell behind again early in the fourth quarter, in part due to a series of missed jumpers by Eric Gordon, but the McCain-Maxey duo then took the spotlight with electric shots.
McCain made a smooth left layup and a pure pull-up three. Maxey often hurt the Nets in transition, nailed a hotly contested step-back three and took complete control of the game. A seemingly automatic catch-and-shoot three from McCain served as a dagger.
With Maxey’s friendly encouragement, McCain admitted to shouting, “I’m the rookie of the year!” » at some point.
“I’m in a state of flow,” he said, “so I don’t know what went through my mind at that moment, but I guess I said that. …Yeah, I said that. It was pretty clear. This is obviously one of my goals for this season. It’s just this competitiveness that emanates from me. I respect all the other rookies in this league, but I’m obviously going to believe in myself. So yeah, some words definitely came out at that point.
The Sixers suddenly had something to smile about on Friday thanks to their two talented young guards.
“There were a few plays where we didn’t get a good shot,” Maxey said, “so I was like, ‘Look, nurse, we’re going to figure it out. We’ll go flat, him and I will play ball screen, and either he’ll make a good play or I’ll make a good play.
“When you have two ball handlers, it makes the game a lot easier. …You can kind of catch your breath a little bit. I know he’s going to make the right play and I know I’m trying to make the right play. Then you have (other) guys who are stealing, making shots and playing extremely hard on defense and offense as well.
