Embiid Dominating, Maxey's Defensive Uptick, McDaniels Injury Update
Another silent tournament?
Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
The Sixers are absolutely humming right now. Their offense looks impeccable, their defense has been lights out, Joel Embiid has become the favorite to win MVP, James Harden is one of the biggest reasons why, and Doc Rivers is pushing all of the right buttons. Here the Sixers are, sporting the NBA’s third-best record and giving the Boston Celtics a challenge for the Eastern Conference’s second seed.
The Sixers are riding a seven-game winning streak and there’s some stuff to dive into!
Joel Embiid doing it all
Embiid is on pace to cruise to his second straight scoring title, a remarkable achievement for any player, let alone a center playing in this era of basketball. He’s continued his complete obliteration of every defender he’s faced recently, from putting 39 points on Rudy Gobert in under 28 minutes a few weeks ago to a 16-21 shooting performance in Charlott, and a whole lot of brilliance in between.
But during the last seven games in particular, his defense has been almost outrageously good -- for my money, it’s by far the best defense he has ever played while simultaneously shouldering the kind of massive offensive workload that he has over the last few years.
We’ve seen in big games and the playoffs that when Embiid is entirely locked in as a defensive player, he is as good on that end as any player in the NBA. And in the past seven games, he’s combined his unstoppable scoring with Defensive Player of the Year-caliber play on the other end of the floor.
Embiid has blocked 18 shots in his last five games -- good for 3.6 swats per contest -- and has impacted opposing offenses in many different ways. While he has rejected a lot of shots at the rim, he’s also forced a lot of good-looking ones into misses. But most importantly, on dozens of occasions recently he has completely wiped out what looked like great shots in the making, to the point that drivers didn’t even get their shots off at all.
Embiid’s scoring draws the headlines -- as it should. But it’s his defense that rounds out this stretch as the single best of his career.
Tyrese Maxey flashing new skills
Maxey has refound his terrific form on offense, once again becoming a knock-down shooter who can change a game in the blink of an eye with his scoring. But the Sixers have derived much more satisfaction from the way he has defended.
Maxey struggled as a defender quite a bit for the first half of the season or so, and while he’s not exactly Gary Payton these days, he is showing genuine signs of progress. In recent games, he has taken to regularly defending the opponent’s best guard and defending them all 94 feet of the floor.
Maxey has guarded players like Damian Lillard and Darius Garland and thrived while doing so. After the game in which Maxey led a Sixers defensive effort that limited Lillard to a 6-15 shooting line, Rivers was asked about his young guard’s defensive improvement. He showed as much enthusiasm as I can remember witnessing from him, and described a similar reaction within his locker room.
“Yeah, how about that?!” Rivers exclaimed. “[PJ Tucker] was killing Tyrese after the game. He was like, ‘the cat’s out of the bag, brother,’ that’s what he kept saying. ‘You played amazing defense…’ He was in his face saying, ‘you played amazing defense, you can do that every single night.’ They were happy about that, so now we know.”
Eventually becoming more analytical than emotional, Rivers praised Maxey’s focus and intensity:
“He pressured the ball, got over picks, didn’t get picked, even sank and took the big away on one,” Rivers said. “Those are great plays for him. It’s great learning stuff for Tyrese.”
Jalen McDaniels injury update
McDaniels suffered a hip injury against the Wizards last Sunday that, from close up, looked quite painful and potentially serious. But I am no doctor, and after the game, Rivers told the media that McDaniels was fine, nursing a minor injury and could end up not missing time at all.
Well, McDaniels has missed the two games the team has played since, and it doesn’t exactly sound like he is on the cusp of returning.
“Just being physical,” McDaniels said his biggest issue was, according to Keith Pompey.
“Me being a skinner-type dude, I have to be physical. So without that, I’m just like nothing now with the injury.”
The Sixers likely hope they can have McDaniels ready for the playoffs, and that certainly is what matters most. But as a very young player with very little experience on this team, every chance to build chemistry and familiarity counts. McDaniels is now running out of time for that as he vies for consistent playoff minutes.