PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are looking to grow the two-man game between Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid on the offensive end of the floor. With James Harden gone, the Sixers must get the most out of that duo in the pick-and-roll game.
The two of them put together a terrific performance in Monday’s 146-128 win over the Washington Wizards. Joel Embiid had 48 points, 11 rebounds and six assists while Tyrese Maxey had 22 points and a career-high 11 assists with zero turnovers.
Embiid and Maxey ran the pick-and-roll beautifully on Monday, which led to a lot of their offensive success.
“In the first quarter, we ran it one time, and I just saw how open it was and then I just told coach don’t even call nothing anymore,” Embiid said. “Let’s just keep running it. He just kept finding me, setting screens finding me, kept scoring. They made an adjustment of icing the screen and then didn’t change anything. We stuck to the two-man game.”
Maxey was trying to push the pace. If the Wizards put a stop to any early fast breaks, he understood Embiid was trailing and in position to run an empty side pick-and-roll.
“Once I pushed the pace and realized I don’t have anything, I realize he’s trailing, and he’s coming right into the ball screen whether it’s right side or left side, and then me going to the right, it’s hard going downhill because now I can pass, I can shoot, I can flow pass especially when you have shooters in that high quad,” Maxey explained. “It makes it difficult. You have to play 2-on-2 and once they commit to my layup or floater, I drop it off to Joel and he gets a layup and whatever he does.”
Now, to put things into perspective, it was against the Wizards — a team in a rebuild that doesn’t have much chance of winning a lot of games. It’s tough to really put much stock into a game such as this one, but it’s all about growth in the early part of the season. It’s about continuing to grow and that is what the Sixers are all about at this stage of the season.
“I thought it was great,” Embiid finished. “Any adjustments they made, we just countered it, and I thought it was good.”
[lawrence-related id=85993,85990,85985]