Sixers come out of 29-point deficit in stunning win over Cavs

Behind Tyrese Maxey’s 32 points and a hell of a defensive effort in the second half, the Sixers overcame a 29-point Cavs lead to win 114-106 in their first game, opening the season 2-0. If you weren’t ready to join this team after the stunning night in the ring in New York, they did their best to lure out any remaining doubters in Match #2.

This is what I saw.

A story in two halves

The Sixers’ offense wasn’t good against the Knicks in Game 1, but they managed to play elite defense long enough to give themselves a chance to win. They didn’t have as much luck in the first half against Cleveland. Their offense was significantly worse against the Cavs, and the visitors punished them for their lack of seriousness by opening the game early and arriving at halftime with a big lead.

Lots of blame to spread. Joel Embiid is going to be the target of a lot of people, especially LeBron fans coming in, and he didn’t do much to help himself in a mediocre 24 minutes to start the game. Just 3/10 from the field, Embiid has come out slow as a scorer, in part because he struggles to create separation as a mid-range shooter. This has been a recurring problem, as he has declined physically over the past few years, with Embiid unable to threaten a shot to keep defenders honest. Honestly, I think it’s a little confusing that he’s gained defensive mobility while also being held back offensively, although I expect that to level out over time.

But it also wasn’t like LeBron James was setting the world on fire. He had five turnovers in the first half, with several giveaways in transition in spots where a younger LeBron would have just hit the turbo and passed people for dunks. Instead, as you watched the gears turn in his head a little too long, he gave Cavs players time to backtrack and deflect his pass attempts, turning what should have been easy outs into Cavs scores going the other way. And his ineffectiveness as a scorer continued into the second night, with LeBron making his first three before slowing down considerably from there.

In their current form, Joel Embiid and LeBron James are a little too creaky to anchor lineups with Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey both on the bench. Nurse will probably have to tinker with the rotations a bit before landing on a final plan, of course, and the problem Thursday was that adding Jaylen Brown to backup lineups, or any lineup, did nothing to help the older, grittier veterans.

The first half was a borderline parody of everything a Brown detractor would have said to justify his trade to Boston. He was a black hole on offense, bogging down possessions by dribbling forcefully into his defender’s chest without gaining much ground. In the rare moments when he raised his head to attempt to make a play, he was on a completely different page than his teammates, throwing passes around their ankles or completely out of reach. But I would have preferred him to move the ball rather than shoot it with 3.5 seconds left on the shot clock, which seemed to be the inevitable conclusion of 90 percent of the possessions he was involved in.

THE only What the Sixers had in mind was Tyrese Maxey. Maxey’s speed crushed the Cavs when they put the ball in his hands, a theme that would eventually show up in Philadelphia’s huge comeback surge.

They all got up from the mat after halftime. Philly executed a well-designed play for a Brown three-pointer in the corner, recovered a hoop and miss from VJ Edgecombe in transition and capped a minute-long burst with a LeBron bucket on the break, sending the crowd into hysterics.

Philadelphia’s defensive intensity increased significantly in the third, aided by Cleveland’s loss of composure against a more potent Sixers unit. Once again, the Sixers moved Joel Embiid to a wing and used LeBron to guard one of Cleveland’s big men, a gamble that worked for the second straight game. Peyton Watson completely fell apart with more opportunities to handle the basketball, and Cleveland’s primary ball handlers didn’t fare much better. The Sixers also brought their pressure much higher up the court, with Tyrese Maxey playing near full-court pressure on a few possessions, nearly forcing his old buddy James Harden into an eight-second violation.

(Even LeBron, who is 41 and has been through and seen it all, seemed to go into a “we’re not losing this damn game” mode in the second game of 82. He made several huge plays on defense in the second half, showing up in the right place at the right time with a shot to send the ball into the hands of a Sixers player.)

In addition to the increased intensity on defense, Maxey was their main option in the half court, with the Sixers running screen-and-screen action with Maxey, Embiid and VJ over and over again, setting Maxey up for a handful of quick moves to the rim and causing chaos for the Cavs in the middle of the court. It looked like he was going to be the guy who finally pushed it in Philly’s favor in the second half, and he ended up closing out the game, crossing the 30-point mark with some heroics in the final minutes.

But ultimately it was Embiid who took center stage midway through the fourth quarter, scoring an and-one from Evan Mobley, dribbling past Harden for a bucket on the glass and corralling the mid-range jumper that put Philly ahead for good. And as Embiid went to the bench to rest, it was Brown who took over, absolutely roasting a single coverage from Watson and Sam Merrill to extend the lead to seven points before the Avengers rallied for the final play.