VJ Edgecombe ran up to Jared McCain at almost full speed.<\/p>\n
When the rookie got close enough to his Philadelphia 76ers teammate, they could have shared stories about their lunches. Then, Edgecombe, standing inches away from McCain, let out a primal scream. Then, he screamed obscenities into his face.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how happy Edgecombe was to see McCain break out of a prolonged slump and hit shots in bunches.<\/p>\n
Following Tuesday night\u2019s 139-122 home win over the Milwaukee Bucks, McCain, the 76ers\u2019 second-year guard, told reporters how much it meant to have his teammates\u2019 support, whether his stock trended up or down. During a game the Sixers had to have, there were multiple feel-good stories. There was McCain, only in the rotation because veteran Quentin Grimes sprained an ankle, scoring 17 points and knocking down a season-high five 3-pointers. For arguably the first time all season, he resembled the guy who could have won Rookie of the Year last season.<\/p>\n
Not to be outdone, there was Paul George scoring 32 points, his second-highest point total of the season. He made a season-high nine 3-pointers. And there were the Sixers, winning another game in which George scored at least 20 points. There have been six such instances this season, and the Sixers have won five of them.<\/p>\n
These performances show how much of a barometer McCain and George can be to Philadelphia\u2019s ceiling.<\/p>\n
The Sixers got 29 points in a dominant performance from Joel Embiid. Newly announced All-Star starter Tyrese Maxey chipped in 22 points and a smooth floor game. When teams prepare for the 76ers, they anticipate taking whatever hits Maxey and Embiid can give. That\u2019s going to always be part of the game.<\/p>\n
But when George resembles the dynamic guy he was during his prime, and when a still-promising contributor like McCain comes along for the ride, that\u2019s when the Sixers become more difficult to beat.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Philadelphia fans, this team plays up to such heights and down to certain valleys, so it\u2019s hard to predict what to expect night to night. This is a Philadelphia squad that got rocked so soundly by the Charlotte Hornets on Monday afternoon that head coach Nick Nurse and his staff briefly scanned the game film and had no other recourse but to flush it and move along with the schedule.<\/p>\n
Indeed, this is also a Philadelphia team looking for some continuity. It\u2019s searching for some consistency. The talent and ability are there. The want-to is there, most importantly, to make a run come playoff time. But the Sixers still haven\u2019t crafted a run capable of validating confidence in them putting it all together.<\/p>\n
Still, some noteworthy things emerged Tuesday. For one of the first times this season, Nurse went smaller with his rotations, thus creating more offensive spacing. It remains to be seen if Justin Edwards operating as a reserve power forward is a long-term thing. But Monday\u2019s result in Charlotte clearly ticked off Nurse and his staff enough to tweak rotations.<\/p>\n
As for McCain, for much of this season, he\u2019s been a man scared to make mistakes on the floor. You\u2019re doomed to fail by playing that way.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say McCain didn\u2019t have reasons to be insecure. Multiple injuries delayed his start to the season, so he had to scrap and fight for minutes. He\u2019s had his moments where he hasn\u2019t been great defensively. That\u2019s bad when minutes are scarce and you play for a defensive-minded coach.<\/p>\n
But the Sixers aren\u2019t a great defensive team, although they can be decent on that end. However, they can be a great offensive team. Leaning into the latter identity, being the team that\u2019s difficult to stop and squeezes out just enough defensive stops, might be best for this group. Philly showed some of that Tuesday. There was Embiid dominating from the post and mid-post. There was George catching fire from beyond the arc. There was McCain finding joy that hadn\u2019t been present in quite a while. There was Maxey filling in where needed and probably happy as a lark that the Sixers\u2019 fate didn\u2019t rest on him scoring 30.<\/p>\n
Whether this continues Thursday night against the Sacramento Kings and Saturday night against the New Orleans Pelicans is truly anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n
These Sixers are volatile in that manner. But Tuesday\u2019s performance was arguably one of their most important of the season. Sure, it was against an undermanned Milwaukee team, which was without Giannis Antetokounmpo. But after Monday in Charlotte, the Sixers needed a vibes performance. In their next opportunity, they decidedly provided one. Sometimes, when you turn in a clunker, it\u2019s prudent to paint a beautiful canvas the next night on the floor.<\/p>\n
Offensively, Philadelphia\u2019s canvas provided hope to a fan base fresh off a livid 24 hours. Now, the 76ers are in search of consistency that\u2019s eluded them this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VJ Edgecombe ran up to Jared McCain at almost full speed. When the rookie got close enough to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,102,121,3871,6,207],"class_list":{"0":"post-565793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-milwaukee","11":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","12":"tag-milwaukeebucks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-philadelphia-76ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115971557002169887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}