How the Sixers Saved their Season
You know it’s The Year when we get a game that’s patently absurd even by the Sixers’ standards.
The season was dead, and the Sixers were going to get what they deserved.
Over the course of six straight minutes, the Sixers had turned a 77-76 lead into a 90-96 deficit through basketball so horrible that James Naismith began rolling over in his grave. Don’t skip past any part of this 1:45 video, watch through all the mistakes the Sixers kept on making.
I promise it’s far more than you even remembered.
Joel Embiid committed turnover after turnover on stagnant post-ups where everyone on the team stood still. Tyrese Maxey missed three straight free throws and threw what should have been a game-sealing giveaway to OG Anunoby. Tobias Harris immediately lost the good will from his elbow jumper at the 5:30 mark by giving up the world’s easiest and-one layup to Jalen Brunson. Even the ever-reliable Nicolas Batum threw an awful outlet pass to a wide open Maxey that basically acted as a four-point swing for the Knicks once Anunoby cashed in a layup on the other end.
So then how, just how, am I sitting here today, writing about how the Sixers miraculously forced a Game 6, rather than typing up a gloomy post-mortem on a five-game series that they lost by a combined 10 points?
Well it started with Nick Nurse finally taking the keys to the offense out of Embiid’s hands, and handing them over to Maxey.
Every Sixers fan in the world was losing their mind last night as the Sixers repeatedly fed Embiid post-ups against Mitchell Robinson in the clutch that just were not working at all. It was abundantly clear that with Embiid’s injured knee + Bell’s palsy facial paralysis + migraines + whatever other Pokémon-style status condition was afflicting him, he just did not have the lift in his knees to score in isolation, or to even reliably hold onto the ball.
A fair question might be why Nurse and Co. seemingly abandoned all the movement sets everyone fell in love with earlier this season. Where were all the “Flip” and “Fake Flip” actions that had opponents scared half to death?
My best guess: Those sets just don’t work as well with Embiid’s health and lateral mobility compromised. So much of those actions were based around Embiid being an equal threat to drive and demolish someone at the rim as he was to step back and hit a jumper over them. With Embiid lugging his lower body around at half-speed during this series, Nurse probably feels he has a much better chance of scoring the less he has to move.
It shouldn’t be forgotten, though — right before the Maxey explosion, Kelly Oubre Jr. converted a ridiculously tough layup to cut the lead back down to four following Maxey’s turnover, and it came by way of that deadly “Flip” action the Sixers have been so fond of.
No one will make tribute videos honoring that moment like they will for what Maxey did in this game, but the Sixers don’t even get the chance to win Game 5 if Oubre doesn’t make that layup over multiple defenders.
But speaking of Maxey — goodness gracious.
There are no words. There is no analysis. Most won’t even remember all the great things he did in the final five minutes before his 30-second avalanche — such as his tough and-one floater over Brunson to stop the bleeding. Or the absurdly great pass he made to Oubre off a drive-and-dish for a dunk. Or the spot-up three he made after Embiid was doubled in the post. All be told, Tyrese Maxey scored or assisted on 14 of the Sixers’ final 16 points in regulation.
There was no huge tactical adjustment that led to these plays. No nuggets of wisdom Nurse dropped to give his team the edge. No huge strategic mistake from the Knicks. The most you can say is that Robinson really screwed up jumping on Maxey’s first three, and not getting his hand up in time on the second.
It was just the Sixers reaping the benefits of believing in Maxey four years ago and taking him in that draft. From the Mike Muscala shot that brought him here, to his unexpected fall to 21st on draft night, to his immediate All-Star ascension following James Harden’s departure, everything about the Tyrese Maxey experience has felt like an absolute miracle to Sixers fans.
And on Tuesday night, he kept that feeling going.
Mind you, there was still a whole five minutes of basketball played after Maxey’s logo three. Heck, the Knicks took an immediate 102-97 lead in the extra period thanks to Brunson cooking Embiid’s drop defense on two straight possessions right out of the gate.
But almost as if the end of regulation had opened their eyes, the Sixers played unfazed, despite again falling behind. They had already been buried six feet below the ground with 30 seconds left in regulation, and yet somehow were still alive to tell the tale. A five-point deficit with four whole minutes left would be light work compared to that.
It started with one last Maxey moment — another step back three over the ill-fated Robinson. Flying off a pindown out of “Chicago” action, Maxey got the exact switch he wanted (largely thanks to a great Embiid screen), then without hesitation let a three fly the moment he saw Robinson dip too far back. The exasperation on Tom Thibodeau’s face is even visible from the broadcast, as he undoubtedly told every single player on his team, “whatever you do, do not let Maxey get off a clean look from three” before overtime started.
The overtime period felt like a complete flip in the tenor of the series. In the first four games, seemingly every single break that needed to go the Knicks’ way — lucky or not — did go their way. They got turnovers when they needed them. They grabbed every offensive rebound off every miss. They escaped with a close win after the Sixers failed to convert every opportunity they had.
In Game 5’s overtime, the Sixers took the lead and extended it off two baffling sequences — the first, a fast break that was kickstarted by Embiid not rolling when he should have, leading to a Maxey turnover. However, the big fella immediately made up for it by getting back in transition and blowing up Josh Hart’s layup with a picture-perfect backwards-jumping contest, leading to an Oubre dunk on the other end.
The second, a play where Maxey just didn’t have the juice to finish over Isaiah Hartenstein, resulted in Batum doing something no Sixers player had done to that point in the series — bullying Hart out of the way for an offensive rebound. By giving Hart a taste of his own medicine, Batum saved a lost possession for the Sixers and instead turned it into a three-point play for Embiid.
Again, it’s the complete inverse of the first four games: Embiid wasn’t up to the task offensively, but his teammates bailed him out. Maxey was the star, Tobias played his best game in months, Batum made smart plays on the margins, and Oubre finished timely baskets when called upon to do so. All while their reigning MVP seemed more likely to turn the ball over than to put it in the basket.
That said: Embiid’s defense was the difference between life and death in overtime. For three straight possessions, Embiid was able to block out the pain from his various ailments, and flip the switch on that end of the floor. From the Hart layup he altered, to stripping and blocking Brunson on back-to-back drives, he turned into the monster rim protector everyone knows he can be in his best moments.
Even so, had the Sixers lost this game, the only defensive play anyone would have remembered from Embiid was his flagrant foul (an unfortunate, but reasonable call) that turned into a game-tying four-point possession for New York after Brunson hit another pull-up three. But that’s when Nurse — maligned by some this series for his rotation decisions — pulled out his best move yet.
Having spammed “Chicago” action for Maxey all overtime, Nurse audibled and called for the Sixers to run their “Horns Chin” action — a staple of his going back to his early days in Toronto, and a play the Sixers have used many times this year.
Nurse weaponized the gravity he knew Maxey would have in that moment, and put the game in the hands of Oubre and Batum, and they delivered (though worth noting here that Oubre was extremely close to dropping the wide-open pass and having this play live in infamy).
“We kind of set them up a little bit,” Oubre said after the game. “They were keying in on Tyrese … we knew the back cut would be open because we’d been doing everything with pick and pops and pick and rolls. It was just a genius play by Coach in that moment.”
There were obviously more twists and turns after that. Brunson missed jumpers over great contests from Batum and Harris. The Sixers committed an egregious turnover in the final minute, only for the Knicks to commit an even more egregious one right after. Embiid dove on the floor and was awarded a timeout as retroactive justice for Game 2. Tobias iced the game at the free-throw line, as every Sixers fan has famously always believed in him.
There’s no one thing to point to as to why the Sixers won that game, outside of Maxey’s absurd shot making, of course. But everyone involved gave just enough, and ultimately, it was the Sixers beating the Knicks with their own proven formula. The big rebounds fell in Philly’s hands. The key coaching adjustments were made by Nurse rather than Thibs. The crazy loose-ball sequences finally went the Sixers’ way.
Unlike Game 3 where the Sixers found a specific play that destroyed the Knicks’ defense, there was no specific fix in this victory. It just confirmed what most have thought: These are two evenly matched teams, and every game between them is going to be a nail-biting coin flip.
In a way, that might not be too comforting if you’re a Sixers fan — there is no “oh we figured this out” to hang your hat on entering Game 6 on Thursday. The Knicks are still fully capable of beating the Sixers at any time.
But the same was true for New York’s three wins. They never fully figured out the Sixers, they just survived the chaos more often – and now they’ll need to find a way to do it one more time in the last two chances they have.
Winning back-to-back coin flip games won’t be easy for the Sixers, but nothing can be more difficult than the miracle they pulled off at Madison Square Garden in Game 5. And that’s all the more reason to believe.
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
“The Danny” is brought to you by the Official Realtor Of The Process, Adam Ksebe.