76ers vs. Cavs: Tyrese Maxey, Paul George spur shocking win

01/24/2025 09:43 PM

The Philadelphia 76ers (16-27) started a back-to-back with a home matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers (36-8). The Sixers ran neck-and-neck with one of the best teams in basketball, snapping a seven-game skid by a final score of 132-129.

While Joel Embiid, Caleb Martin and several other players remained sidelined, so too did Cavs starters Evan Mobley and Isaac Okoro. The Sixers’ abysmal effort from their last game was unacceptable and they seemed to know it. They came out and played with more of a purpose tonight, charging some of that good energy into a bonkers display of shooting and perhaps the most surprising win of the season.

Shooting the lights out

The 76ers have finally figured out a way to be good on offense without Embiid: shoot unsustainably well from beyond the arc. Genius! The Sixers will never have as good of a shooting game this season. But that's okay. Nights like these are not easy to duplicate.

Coming into tonight, their best three-point percentage in a single game was 45.8. They had only one game where they made 20 triples. Tonight, they connected on 53.8 percent of their three-point tries for 21 makes.

Maxey scored eight points on three shots in the opening minutes, allowing the Sixers to keep pace with the best offensive team in the NBA. He created a lot of shots against the Cavs’ zone defense out of pick-and-rolls and by pulling the defense toward him with forceful dribbles. Philly made eight of their first 10 attempts from deep, scoring 39 points in the first quarter – and that's with five turnovers, too.

Not only was Maxey shooting and piercing the Cavs’ defense well but he was a disruptive presence on defense, too, creating turnovers and transition scoring opportunities. His 14 points and four assists propelled the Sixers to one of their best quarters of the season, and it came against the Eastern Conference’s top dog.

The 76ers certainly shot well above their heads but they weren't just chucking up the ball and praying. They got into drive-and-kick sequences often, penetrating a solid, active Cleveland defense and shooting with confidence. The Cavs move the ball as well as any team but the Sixers had more assists than them at halftime. Part of that was the Sixers simply shooting so well, no doubt, but they had plenty of shots that came right after the pass.

Maxey starting to put together strong performances just as All-Star voting comes to a close is unfortunate timing. It’s also probably going to be too little, too late for a Sixers team stuck in the standings mud. Although he wasn't the same inferno of buckets he was in the final three quarters, his early run made this win possible.

The Sixers’ offense went cold at the worst time, scoring just four points in three minutes at the end of the fourth quarter, allowing the Cavs to snipe an eight-point deficit to three in the final 90 seconds. Nonetheless, they managed to hang on.

PG shows his best and worst

Paul George, in contrast to Maxey, had as many passes into the crowd as he did field goals through his first 13 minutes. He got a few to go after his turnover that garnered some boos from the Wells Fargo Center audience but his performance was once again disappointing. A crowd that was once over the moon to welcome him in this offseason is starting to grow very weary.

George had some more opportunities to score beyond his blend of tough shots but there were still plenty of those. He was also his team’s worst offender in the turnover department, chucking bad passes and allowing defenders to strip him of the ball.

The second half saw a different, more energized George. It helped greatly that he got some shots to fall but he stepped up his effort a bit, too. That good energy manifested into a great performance down the stretch, which included a side-step three that put the Sixers up by four with four minutes left.

Paul George sinks a TOUGH step-back triple to give the Sixers a 4-point lead pic.twitter.com/y6pFfJvKp4

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 25, 2025

Although it’s good that George turned his poor performance around, it remains troublesome that he even has performances that need turning around in this way. Year 1 of PG’s contract in Philly has featured a long fight with allegations of being washed. The second half of this game threw some gnarly counterpunches, though the first half is too much to ignore.

George’s first half could have been enough to run the Sixers out of most games. Fortunately for PG, who scored 21 of his 30 points in the second half, the whole team caught fire from deep and Kelly Oubre Jr. worked his way to 22 points (and 13 rebounds) by crashing the offensive glass and getting to the foul line before fouling out.

Eric Gordon turning back the clocks and swishing some deeeep threes made it clear that this was Philly’s time to shine. Justin Edwards’ 15 points off the bench can't be overlooked, either.

Defenseless

The Cavs dismantled the 76ers in their last meeting, though their effectiveness took a major hit in this game with Mobley’s absence. The 76ers took advantage of his absence and kept it close, though they still found it hard to guard Cleveland despite missing one of its key creators.

The Sixers are far from the first team to get picked apart by the Cavs and they won't be the last. The East’s top seed comes into every game with excellent shooting surrounding their star guards. Those talents are bolstered by a phenomenal sense of where to cut and relocate as the ball enters the paint.

Sometimes, the Sixers’ effort to help after the Cavs’ initial action was poor. Mitchell and Garland each found an uncontested layup on half-court possessions in the third quarter. The Cavs kept attacking the Sixers in the gaps and they found their own way to good shots. Ty Jerome fit the theme of this game perfectly, exploding for 33 points and making all eight of his three-point attempts.

It’s never a good thing to be bad on defense, so the 76ers shouldn't be let off the hook, but they played the game that needed to be played. They hadn't had a night like this, where they lit it up so well from beyond the arc that defense hardly mattered.

The 76ers are back in action tomorrow against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center. Embiid will miss that game, too.

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