[Post-Game Thread] The Philadelphia 76ers fall to the Phoenix Suns with a final score of 116 to 110

29 comments

1. We are a terrible rebounding team and have the 4th worst team FG% in the league. This game went exactly like it was supposed to.

   Unlike other teams, we never win undermanned games and need everyone to play to have a chance

2. Game against an essentially fully healthy Suns team that is genuinely very good missing two of our top 3. I’m not upset at this. Sucks that Maxey couldn’t do anything but he was trying, you really just don’t have it sometimes. We need Embiid and PG to really be a decent team outside of flukey clutch shooting.

   Why is McCain even here? Grimes was absolutely dreadful for enormous stretches of this game and he didn’t even see the floor once. If you wanna say Grimes is the better player I’m fine with that but why are we taking McCain out of the G-League when he could be logging important rehab minutes? Nurse said he wanted him here for lineup versatility. PG was out, and the two players he’s up first to replace, Grimes and Maxey, were terrible for most of the game (Grimes had slightly better flashes). There’s no situation other than garbage time (probably worse reps than the G-league) where there’s a better opportunity to bring him in. What are we even doing here?

3. They were just BEGGING us to come back and win but no, the sixers just won’t allow themselves to make shots when they matter. How many wide ass open layups did we brick tonight?

4. Maxey was horrid tonight. Don’t love some of the shots and defensive gambles he was taking, but also maybe playing him 40 mpg in a season is actually bad and there’s a reason why other coaches don’t ride their stars like this??

   In general, just felt like a massive coaching difference between two tired teams. The fake comeback at the end really masked how the Suns outplayed the Sixers for a while there

5. Grimes has been awful for a long time now, glad he didnt get paid.

6. Grimes ain’t been good since November lmao. Really thought he’d be a sixth man of year candidate.

7. You gotta be able to hit from the outside if you want to beat good teams, especially a team like the Suns, and the Sixers didn’t match up well tonight.

8. Another game, another blank statline from two guys making $100M. It’s impossible to have any type of continued success when two of your three maxes are part-time to this degree. Maxey’s volume is also starting to catch up with him.

   We’re gonna see a lot more of these games if this keeps up.

9. Maxey needs a night off.

   Rest him against the Hornets or the Kings next week.

10. Aaaaaand back to being mid again

11. I’m always amused by how the boxscore can never really translate how bad Grimes is. This is why the eye test is so important.

12. Look I get that McCain hasn’t been great but on a night where Maxey is struggling (probably tired from all the minutes), no PG or Embiid, and others weren’t doing much scoring

    They could’ve definitely gotten McCain some early minutes tonight and see how it goes, maybe he could’ve been the difference maker on a night where Maxey just didn’t have it

    Seems like they should’ve left McCain in the g league, if this is how they were gonna do him

    I do not like how they’re handling him

13. Why are Gordon and Lowry taking up roster spots. It’s so punishing on these back to backs when our injury prone guys are tactically rested.

    Make it make sense

14. Yeah, he’s been rough, but we’re absolutely starving for bench scoring. Instead, we’re sitting a promising player who needs minutes to get his mojo back. At this point, hard to see how it could be worse than what the bench has been giving us.

15. guys.. i think nurse is trying to kill maxey

16. Maxey in a brutal slump from 3 and this was his 2nd awful performance in 4 games. Nurse may be running him into the ground.

17. Nurse’s bad shot diet offense and gimmick defense don’t cut it against good teams. The Suns were getting open 3s all night. I get why they won’t fire him, but the writing’s on the wall.

18. Vj hitting dunks and mid ranges like his airness

19. If Nick refuses to play McCain on tonight of all nights, than a move needs to be made. Maxey is going to need a double leg amputation by March if he keeps getting run like this

20. 76ers should have taken the risks for 3 pointers. This was not a 2 pointer game.

21. Y’all I just realized Maxey got a new born… he prolly really tired from not only playing 40 mins a game but lack of sleep

22. Suns waived Bradley Beal (would’ve made 53.5 mil this year) and have had Jalen Green (33.5 mil) play 3 games so far this season. Essentially 87 million in dead cap (though Beal’s actual cap hit is less due to waive and stretch) so far for them this season. They have one star in Booker, who’s been good but with a down year from 3 that has him at league average efficiency for the year. Then it’s a few established role players (Brooks, O’Neale, and Allen), with the rest being guys who are cast-offs from others teams (Goodwin, Gillespie, Williams) or their own young draft picks, drafted with fairly low picks as well (Ighodaro and Dunn). Their draft picks from this year have contributed basically nothing either and they have a couple guys on minimums and two-ways contributing very little.

    Sixers have part-time players in Embiid and PG on huge contracts, but who have still played in about half the season’s games so far and are still productive players when they do play. We have one consistent star in Maxey who’s playing at a All-NBA type level and has taken a massive leap from the year before averaging 30 on 60% TS, while having to play 40!! mpg. Sixers then have a few established role players in guys like Grimes and Oubre with a bunch of their own young players on the roster in guys like Bona, Barlow, and Edwards (not listing McCain because his injury has affected his play). VJ has been a revelation despite being a rookie and someone who can credibly start for at least an ok team, even with Lowry and Gordon on vet mins as wasted roster spots, with Barlow on a two-way playing more minutes than all of the Suns two-ways combined.

    Yet the Suns have a better record and better net rating, while playing in a tougher conference against a tougher schedule. This is the difference between a good coach and a bad coach. Sure the Suns role players I listed are playing better than the Sixers role players, but at least a decent part of that is credit to the Suns coaching staff and development. Gillespie averaged 6 ppg under a veteran, championship-winning coach in Bud, but looks like a 6th MOTY candidate under Ott. Almost every expert, betting market (O/U 30.5 wins according to bbref), and fan before the season thought they were going to be trash and that they simply lacked enough talent, especially after trading away KD. But the Suns have managed to massively outperform expectations due to their coach.

    Meanwhile the Sixers are performing roughly around where betting markets would’ve predicted (O/U 43.5 wins) despite PG and Embiid actually playing well in a decent portion of games, Maxey taking a massive leap, actual contributions from the two-way slots, and VJ being a credible starter for a rookie. This is a team that I would argue still has more talent than the Suns too. So why should Sixers fans be satisfied with Nick Nurse?

23. The difference in preparation, coaching and level of effort was….noticeable.

24. Not to be dramatic, but if we can’t figure out a way to add a rotation player 3/4 with above average 3pt shooting from the corner at the deadline, we might as well just blow the team up. We’ll never win a playoff series with teams game planning to allow Barlow/Walker open threes

25. [deleting some old photos on my phone damn i miss when Jojo could do this](https://imgur.com/a/MaJFfRl)

26. I don’t think you read what I wrote completely. I’m not saying that the Suns are a perfect team, or that they don’t have weaknesses, I simply listed the weaknesses that the 76ers have and how they are very severe.

    The Suns are a more well balanced team, particularly because of their shooting (which matters a lot in 2026) so it offsets things like not being able to rebound. In terms of playmaking, the Suns rank 20th in overall assists, the 76ers rank 28th. The Suns have multiple ball handlers in Gillespie, Allen & DBook who can all table set to varying degrees whereas we really rely on Maxey to do almost everything from a playmaking perspective.

    What I said about the Suns is true they are a more well balanced team. Looking at the eye test, stats and record back that up. Their roster is nothing like the 76ers lmao.

27. We MIGHT have a chance to make it out of the play-in round, but beyond that, we’re doing nothing in the playoffs. It just is what it is. Everyone knows it. So why not let McCain accrue a good amount of minutes for a handful of games straight just to see if it can help him get his game back? I mean, if you’re not gonna try to trade him for some value while you still can, then have him start the game and play 25+ minutes per for like 5 or so games in a row. If he still looks like piss and can’t pull it together, then you know you’ve officially got yourself a dud and can just move on. On the other hand, there’s the chance that it helps him gain his confidence back and he can become a worthwhile rotational piece once again. Either way, they gotta do something with the dude.

    *Our coach is ass and will lead us nowhere come playoff time.

28. Just saying this team needs a PG because there’s no way Maxey’s making it to April still shooting 47/40, his legs are showing tons of mileage lately.

    Lowry is a non-factor atp, and McCain still needs to regain confidence in his body. Wake up Daryl.

    Not surprised at all with the result. Dillon Brooks is a culture-setter, and their team is doing amazing. Wish we had someone like him

29. Ppl are now using this game as an opportunity to slander Maxey saying he’s only averaging 30 because the east is weak defensively.

    Meanwhile he’s averaging 32/5/5 against Detroit, dropped 28/5/4 against OKC, 44/7/9 vs Atlanta, and is averaging 29/9.7/5 vs Boston.