We Didn’t Know THIS About the Sixers Until Now…

We Didn’t Know THIS About the Sixers Until Now…

Don’t look now, but your Philadelphia 76ers are off to a perfect 2 and0 start to the season. This time with a victory over the Charlotte Hornets. This is now back-to-back games in which this team has scrapped from behind from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter without blinking an eye. I want to break down why they were revealing a very important characteristic about this Sixers team and why it is about time to start getting excited about the damn Sixers again. I’m fired up coming on here right after the victory over the Charlotte Hornets that ultimately did come a 125 to 121 victory that was the biggest thing that I want to note here is at the top that little box scored the Sixers outscoring the Hornets 39 to25 in the fourth quarter. Now I’ll circle back to some takeaways on some of the big players in this game. Some huge impact performances from the likes of Andre Drummond, Justin Edwards, Quinton Grimes stepping up hitting the big time shot. But the clearest message that I want to get across here is this Sixers team cares. this Sixers team competes. This Sixers team fights. That this Sixers team does not blink when their backs are against the wall. Now, I know we are two games into the season. We got a lot more to go get into this year, but this is a team that has had their back against the wall and has fought back against it. And that is a characteristic that we should 100% be able to get behind as a fan base here. This team cares. This team competes. I am fired up because this Sixers team is what we should want a basketball team to be like. I know there are problems. It was not perfect. We should not want to get down double digits in back-to-back fourth quarters. But what I care about most is until that clock hits zero, this team is not waving the white flag. And that has not been true for some Sixers team in past years. Now, let’s dive into some takeaways for today. I do want to start off with the box score here. Going to start off with the big fella. Even though he was not the biggest story of today, still sticking strict to that 20 minute limit there. And he did clock his 20 minutes very early in this game. Did not make an appearance in the fourth quarter. But what I was encouraged by is the Joel Embiid final statline in 20 minutes of play is 20 points, four assists, and two boards. The identity of this team has shifted in a major way. But the reality is Joel Embiid is still our guy to an extent. That the best chance of this team actually taking the leap to legitimate contenders this year is that dude having something left in the tank. And tonight, he showed me that he still did. I don’t know if it was a mental thing in game one. I don’t know if he wasn’t feeling 100% himself, but he moved better today. He was more aggressive today. He attacked the rim at a better rate and he looked like Joel goddamn Embiid. That’s what I want to see from this Sixers team. Now, the story of this game is absolutely the guard play here and I think that’s going to be a trend all season. Now, to highlight the guards directly here, shout out to our guy Jacob Marina who’s tweeting out Tyrese Maxi with 28 points, nine assists, and six boards. Quinton Grimes with 24 points, four assists, and three rebounds, including a massive three that ended up putting this team up by three with the game on the line there. And let’s not forget about the rookie VJ Edgecomb with 15 points, uh, eight assists, six rebounds there. Another polished performance where he just looked the part of a guy who is NBA ready and can contribute right now. I know this was not the flashy 34-point performance that we saw in the opening game from VJ Edgecom, but he’s so active. He competes so hard defensively. I thought he was awesome tonight. Face guarding LaMelo Ball for stretches, getting his hands in pass lane, generating turnovers, and that’s another area of the identity of the Sixers team. This is no longer James Harden and Joel Embiid lumbering up the court, getting into a pick and roll, and that’s the shot. No, this team wants to run. This team wants to go. This team wants to get out in the fast break and beat you. And that is a team once again that I can get behind here. Now, to dive in the nitty-gritty a little bit, I do want to dive into a couple more takeaways here. And I’m going to pull up the team stats here. There are still issues with this Sixers team. I’m not saying this is perfect, but they are a perfect 2 and 0. Now, as far as the issues that I am speaking about, number one I want to bring up is rebounding. Rebounding is still going to be a problem with this Sixer team that they were outrebounding 45 to 40 tonight and this is a team that I do not expect to end in the upper echelon of rebounding team. Shout out to Ryan Caulk Brener who liked him his entire time at Kraton. Happy to see him like thriving in the NBA at a rapid rate here, but I don’t think that is exactly the level of competition that the Sixers should be measuring themselves. Now, to give him a little bit of pass, we did get an injury to Dominic Barlo. I do think it is a bit telling about the roster construction that a two-way guy like Dominic Barlo is that important to the team, but the game absolutely changed when he did go out of this. I believe he clocked 16 minutes today. They’re calling it a laceration on his elbow, which from my understanding that is essentially a cut. I don’t think this is going to be a long-term issue with Barllo, but they certainly missed him in the second half tonight. And the guy that I’d never expect to be giving flowers right here on Sixers Digest is Andre Drummond himself. Now, I’m going to pull up this tweet from my guy Tony Jones who posts, “Andre Drummond came off the bench and grabbed 13 huge rebounds when the Sixers couldn’t grab a rebound. He played 15 minutes and was a plus 12. He flipped the game.” Now, I’m not quite as all in on this was an excellent drum experience as Tony Tweet is. He absolutely was necessary to what they brought to the table that he brought another level just being active on the glass, including a play where he’s rebounding a missed free throw, getting up, getting an and one, and he did miss that final free throw there. And by the way, Drummond coming through in the clutch with them needing him to hit a free throw with them holding a lead by three. And Drummond delivered. He hit one of two, but you know what? That pushed the lead to four and essentially sealed the deal here. I’m kind of surprised the lack of belief in a Dem Bonoa. And I will note he hasn’t been good. He hasn’t been impressive here. But my expectation coming into the season is that Bon will get first dibs at that backup center sort of opportunity. And it’s a little more than just a backup center given the minutes restriction that Joel Embiid is caught on here. But this is about the entire team here. And Drummond stepped up. He played his role. He did his thing and they needed him tonight. The corner threes got to stop a little bit. Some of the decision-making still has to stop a little bit. You’re going to have to take the good with the bad with Andre to an extent, but he did make a difference tonight. And we got to give him his flowers because of this. Now, to rotate through the box score a little bit more. Couple other guys that I did want to highlight. Mentioned Barlo clocking out of the game at 16 minutes. They absolutely missed him. Kelly Ubé Jr. continues to be an unsung hero of this Sixers team tonight. He finished with 19 points. Went two of three from three. would have liked a little more activity on the boards, but I thought he was pretty everywhere defensively, including taking tasks like guarding LaMelo Ball. And off the bench here, Justin Edwards swung this game to me. We did not see just about any of Justin Edwards in the season opener here. I know he was dealing with a rib issue, and that’s been brought up. My interpretation of the quot because he did step on the court for a brief stretch of time, and by stretch of time, I literally mean like 30 seconds in that Celtics game. I think that was more of a Nick Nurse decision, but he stepped up that Justin Edwards is probably the first guy that I’ve looked at as a regular season merchant. You throw him in summer league, you throw him in preseason, he does not look good. You throw the bright lights of actual NBA basketball on him and the dude rises to the occasion. And you know what? If that’s his deal, I can live with that with Justin Edwards there. Quinton Grimes, I want to give a couple more flowers to because this was not a guy that I thought had an excellent start in game one. a bit of an awkward situation that we talked all off seasonason about the contractual outlook that that was the the last loose end of the entire free agency and finally not even really came to the table as they basically forced his hand to take the qualifying offer. This is a big year for Quinn Grimes individually and he’s going to play a very important role on this Sixers team. It was nice to see him get a little bit of flow. Nice to see the confidence that he nailed that three-pointer that put them up three. And I loved his response at the end that he did the postgame interview with Kate Allah after the fact and they asked him about it and he said, “Well, I’m a shooter. I was ready waiting for the ball to come. I knew they were going to throw two at Maxi there and I delivered, knocked it down.” And that’s the type of outlook that I love. I do think Quinton Grimes, while the contract stuff sort of stole the headlines here, I don’t think he in his heart of hearts here is a guy who means ill will. But I do see a world where there is still a long-term future with Grimes. Now, does he feel the same way? Those are questions that we’ll see at the end of the season here. Obviously, there are priorities with guys like Tyrese Maxi, VJ Edgecom, and Jared McCain certainly going to throw a wrinkle into this entire equation here, but those are good problems to have as an organization. Now, to rotate through a little bit more, Tyrese Maxi, man, he’s the dude. He’s the guy for the Sixers team, and that is quite clear through these first two games. His ultimate stat line tonight finishing with the 28 points, nine assists there. He also added six rebounds, which is a big deal when you look at this Sixers roster overall. Andre Drummond reading the pack with 13 rebounds there. And that it is Edgecom and Maxi next up on the list with six and six. Again, I would like to see a little bit more from UB and be we’re gonna have to roll with the punches there. I don’t think that’s an area where he’s going to impact at a high level probably moving forward. Certainly not in the short term of this, but the fact that Maxi is pitching in on that and also dude, he’s tough as nails and deserves a little bit more credit. I don’t know what that guy needs to do to get a foul call, but when you compare him to the Jaylen Brunsons, the Trey Youngs, the James Hardens of the world that are just itching for fouls going down the lane, this dude plays real hoops that he attacks the basket at a rate that I honestly my gut for what it is is I think he’s too fast and I think referees like don’t catch up to him. But he gets hacked going in the basket, including tonight against the Hornets where there was a ton of offball stuff with them putting hands on him as he’s trying to free for an inbounds pass and just roughing him up from start to finish. But the thing that I will always respect about Tyrese Maxi is he ain’t backing down, man. He’s going to continue rolling and he was there at the end of the game. And ultimately, it did come through with him needing to deliver with a bunch of free throws down the stretch and he did his job that he did what it takes to win. And again, that is the biggest takeaway for this Sixers team that in its entirety, what we’re figuring out about this Sixers team in the very short term of this season here is that shout out to my guy Hoops reference who tweets out, “Look, man, if there’s one thing about this year’s Sixers team is that they’re going to fight until the clock hits zero. And they’re not dropping their heads no matter how big a run their opponent goes on.” That is all I can really ask for at this stage of the year. We’re gonna it’s going to be a work in progress for getting this team up to the 100% standard what they want to evolve into as a team this season. But if that is the baseline that they’ve established this culture, this standard that Tyrese Maxi stood up there at the press conference at media day talking about I want to set the standard for every single night that you flip on a Sixers game, you know what you’re getting and that’s going to be a team that competes. That all sounds great when you’re just saying it in, you know, a press conference setting. We’re just speaking it into an existence. completely different ball game when we’re seeing this right in front of our very eyes. They very easily could have and there are versions of this Sixers team that would have rolled over when the going got tough in this game and they did not and that is something that I am thrilled with. I’m fired up about this Sixers team. Again, there are things to fix. It is not perfect. You cannot allow these teams continually to come out of the gates in the third quarter and build a lead, but they do not blink, man. They fought back. That’s 2 and 0. Those two big time wins. And I know it’s the Charlotte Hornets, but this is not your your father’s Charlotte Hornets here. This is a team with legitimate talent on it. LaMelo Ball, good player. Miles Bridger, talented basketball player. Kanipple gonna make an impact here. Ryan Cochrunner completely fine as a big man that there is legitimate talent. I know Brandon Miller got hurt as well, who’s a huge part of their team. This is a Hornets team that scraps that competes as well. This is not just a brushoff win. This was a good win by the Sixers once again. You got to beat who’s in front of you and that’s what they’ve done in back-to-back games. So, I know it is just two games of the season. I’m going to try not to overact overreact completely, but the takeaway that I do think is really clear from the start of the season is this team cares. And if they care, then so do I, man. And so should you. Let’s get behind the Sixers team again. And I’m going be doing it from start to finish right here on Sixers Digest. So, you want to tap in with me? Make sure you’re hitting that subscribe button is the best way there. Only 38.1% of you guys watch these videos have subscribed to us here at Sixers Digest just yet. So, let’s get this family growing. Man, I’m fired up and excited about this team again, more so than I felt in like years to this point. That there is a youthful energy, a fight, a spirit that I can absolutely get behind. And I cannot wait to follow where this season goes. So, make sure you guys are tapping along with me by hitting that subscribe button, dropping that like on this video below. Give your comments and rip them all away in the comments. Want to hear your guys’ thoughts on this game as well. Appreciate you guys for tuning into this video here. We’ll be back talking with you next time right here on Sixers Digest. Face.

We Didn’t Know THIS About the Sixers Until Now…

The Sixers are off to a 2-0 start to the season and rapidly forming an identity. Sean Barnard reflects on his biggest takeaways from the victory over the Hornets and both games thus far. He discusses Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes, VJ Edgecombe, and plenty more.

#nba #sixers #philadelphia76ers

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Sixers Digest is a YouTube Channel that covers all the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors regarding the Philadelphia 76ers. We provide comprehensive coverage on topics such as game highlights, player performances, and in-depth analysis of team strategies. Our channel features discussions on key players like Joel Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and Kyle Lowry, as well as insights from Head Coach Nick Nurse and President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey. Stay tuned for all the exciting updates and engaging content on everything Sixers!

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