76ers vs. Nets: Joel Embiid, Philly coast to victory
01/04/2025 08:28 PM
The Philadelphia 76ers (14-19) concluded a road trip against the Brooklyn Nets (13-22). The Sixers needed to wash off their recent brutal losses and faced a short-handed Nets team that’s all but begging to lose. Philly successfully avoided stepping on the upside-down rake and won convincingly, 123-94.
Kelly Oubre Jr. remained sidelined, though there's no long-term concern with his hand injury, while the 76ers deployed perhaps their biggest starting lineup to date: Paul George, Caleb Martin and Guerschon Yabusele in between Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid.
The Nets, meanwhile, were without scoring aficionados Cam Thomas and Cam Johnson as D’Angelo Russell played the first home game of his second Brooklyn stint before being ruled out at halftime. Ben Simmons was added to the injury report and ruled out at the last second.
Getting the Big 3 to mesh
Before the game, Nick Nurse talked about trying to get the Sixers stars to click simultaneously and how he wants to get more reps for George and Embiid in their two-man game together. The schedule picking up has made it harder to experiment on the court, though it shouldn't take much beyond just saying, "Hey, share the ball, guys."
Nick Nurse said that the Embiid-Maxey 2-man game is "close-ish" to the level it was last season. Also hopes the Embiid-George 2-man game gets more reps so that they have more data on those plays.
"I think it's something we need to develop and hopefully we can as we go here."
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) January 4, 2025
As was the case in his last game, Embiid’s energy was far from the best he’s ever shown. He fought down low against Nic Claxton but also wasn't super eager to get up the court quickly. Coming out of the first timeout of the game, he kicked it up a notch, throwing down a dunk. He then proceeded to bully a much smaller Noah Clowney, ending the first quarter with 15 points — only four less than the entire Nets team.
George helped set him up on some of those looks, made easier by Brooklyn’s willingness to switch Day’Ron Sharpe off of Embiid when Claxton sat. Their pick-and-rolls created extremely open shots for Philly. It remains to be seen how much of that was the result of playing a hodgepodge Nets team but at least there was something.
Maxey and Embiid got into their own two-man game early in the second half, dishing passes back and forth to unlock a layup for the big man. Then the roles reversed on a sharp backdoor cut from the speedy guard. They synchronized their cuts and passes with the type of precision that only comes from having experience together.
The Sixers kept the familiar connection going throughout the third quarter, getting them to team up on pick-and-rolls and feeds to the post. Embiid and George were able to rest the whole fourth quarter while Maxey sat the back half of it.
The Brooklyn Guinea Pigs
Although Nurse admitted that experimenting is more difficult on the fly, he did try out some new things. Recognizing the chance to pick up an easy win, he tried little projects here and there while not going overboard enough to sacrifice the game.
Maxey struggled to find avenues to easy shots. He consistently hunted contact but didn't find enough to justify his usage. So, when he played but Embiid and George rested, Martin brought the ball up to lead the offense at times, moving Maxey to the wing. Martin put pressure on the Nets’ defense with his quick between-the-legs dribbling, earning enough space to get a step on his defender.
Martin bailed the Sixers’ offense out with some hot shooting, though he reserved the right for some ugly misses. He made his first four field-goal attempts, including two threes and fadeaway to beat the shot clock, and then bricked two free throws. But he wasn't just effective because he had the ball. On consecutive possessions just before halftime, he scored with a timely cut into the dunker’s spot and then saved an errant pass, pirouetted to the perimeter and assisted George for three.
C-Mart’s heads-up thinking, along with his defensive contributions, made for the perfect tape to explain why the Sixers wanted him. Obviously, though, the hot shooting (7-7 from the field in the first half) can't be underplayed. It was as if Martin was playing the Boston Celtics — perhaps he saw the gigantic "B" at halfcourt and assumed it stood for Boston.
Embiid and Andre Drummond played together in the second quarter, seeing the court for a whole 67 seconds. It was the first that the two centers played together this season. Each team scored two points within that minute. Make of that stretch whatever you will.
Justin Edwards was the first forward off the bench. Fresh off some great performances in the G League, the rookie flashed his scoring potential with a clean spin move into a layup. He drilled some corner threes off of the feed from Embiid and Lowry.
The most impressive bucket of Justin Edwards' young NBA career thus far.
Love this live dribble spin to get back to his strong hand. pic.twitter.com/Tf0ZZf5BCR
— Dan Olinger (@dan_olinger) January 4, 2025
New starting lineup (again)
The 76ers’ 20th starting lineup of the season was perhaps its biggest. Guerschon Yabusele stepped in for Kyle Lowry in the starting lineup, setting up a big backcourt with a decently sized frontcourt.
Yabusele didn't have the most exciting game, save for a big dunk that sent the bench into a chest-pounding frenzy, but adding the Sixers’ best size-and-shooting threat next to the Big 3 and a versatile role player makes for a very impactful combination. It’ll take a bigger (and higher quality) sample size to make any sweeping assessments but this starting five — or at least pairing Embiid with Yabusele more — may be the right call moving forward.
If there was any newness this lineup needed to work through, it was made apparent in the first few minutes. The Nets showed their affection for shooting threes right away by making their first three attempts. A few of those were made possible by the jumbo Sixers not matching up with their assignments well, putting them behind their hosts 11-0. Brooklyn caught Philly sleeping to start but, unsurprisingly, had no answers when the guest woke up.
Lowry wasn't banished from the rotation — his minutes, interestingly, were tethered to Reggie Jackson’s — but less is certainly more with the feisty veteran at this point.
While this game featured plenty of new(er) developments, there was still the same old animosity between Embiid and Brooklyn.
In the first quarter, Embiid got called for a technical foul, as is seemingly customary for his visits to Barclays Center. He held onto Keon Johnson for too long after a jump ball, trying to prevent the Net from falling when he didn't really need to. Johnson wasn't having it and neither were the officials.
Embiid and Claxton continued their loathing, unadulterated loathing of one another. Any little brush-up, however small, seemed to make their flesh crawl. There were no techs between the two of them this time, though they didn't seem to get any friendlier.
The 76ers will head back home for a three-game homestand, starting with a Monday matchup against the Phoenix Suns.
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