In a 125-105 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, the Philadelphia 76ers struggled mightily in the non-Joel Embiid minutes. The Sixers’ bench unit was outscored by Phoenix’s, 53-17, and they had their issues defensively and not moving the ball.
The Sixers have had played this four-game road trip without their star point guard, James Harden. The Beard ensures the offense is flowing and that everybody is in a good position to succeed, and he makes sure they succeed in the minutes with Embiid off the floor.
Of course, with Harden out there, the Sixers are able to succeed with Paul Reed in the pick-and-roll. As terrific as Tyrese Maxey was on Saturday, he isn’t the playmaker Harden is. Therefore, the offense can look stagnant when he’s not out there with the bench unit to run things. Phoenix had 35 assists on the night while Philadelphia had 21.
“I think James is more, usually he plays with our second unit, and our second unit guys usually play with James, that’s why I’m not overreacting to our second unit’s poor play,” coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “We don’t have some key guys not playing with that group, but I do overreact–when we move the ball, we’re really hard to play.”
Rivers then recalled the loss to the Chicago Bulls at home on March 20. The Sixers had a lot of ball movement issues in that game, and it caused them to struggle in a double-overtime loss. The bench unit had its issues that night as well. When Harden is out there, guys like Georges Niang can get going from deep. He wasn’t able to against the Suns.
“Like Chicago,” Rivers added. “When we don’t move the ball, we have to have great individual efforts and we’ve gotten away with that on certain nights. But you’re not going to win playing that way consistently.”
They did get a great individual performance from Maxey who had 37 points on 14-for-19 shooting and he made seven 3s, but he only had three assists. That is where they miss Harden for the bench unit.
“In the beginning of the second half, he (Maxey) made three or four flow passes,” Rivers finished. “We didn’t make any of the shots, but he was making the right decision. It’s tough because again, Tyrese is not a natural point guard, and we have him on the floor being that right now because our point guard is hurt. So I feel for him at times because he struggles getting us in stuff because it’s not what he does, honestly. So I think that affects us a little bit.”
Philadelphia will finish this road trip on Monday when they take on the Denver Nuggets.
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