Tag: DeAndre Jordan

Player grades: Sixers use historic shooting performance to run over Pacers

The Philadelphia 76ers used a historic shooting performance to run over the Indiana Pacers on the road.

The Philadelphia 76ers paid a visit to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night to continue their 3-game road trip looking to get everything moving in the right direction and making sure they are all on the right page before the playoffs begin on April 16.

The Sixers used some ridiculously hot shooting on their way to a 131-122 win over the Pacers on the road. The Sixers knocked down 17 triples in the first half which is a franchise record for 3-pointers made in a half and they knocked down 23 for the game which is a franchise record for 3s in a game. The shots they were making were really impressive as there was nothing the Pacers could do even though they cut a 27-point lead down to five.

Joel Embiid was magnificent and led Philadelphia with 45 points and 13 rebounds, Tyrese Maxey had 30 points and he knocked down eight triples while also having seven assists, Tobias Harris had 17 points, six rebounds, and five assists, and James Harden had 11 and 12 assists.

Here are the player grades following the win:

Player grades: Joel Embiid, Sixers clinch playoff spot with win over Cavs

Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers knock off the Cleveland Cavaliers to clinch a playoff spot for the fifth straight season.

The Philadelphia 76ers began their final road trip of the regular season on Sunday when they began a 3-gamer against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. The Sixers had a lot on the line in this one as a playoff spot was in their grasp if they could walk out of Cleveland with a win.

It was a tough start early as the Sixers could not find any rhythm. They shot 5-for-19 in the first quarter and just 31.9% for the first half, but they were able to stay in the game as they trailed by only six at the half. Eventually, the Sixers were able to come away with a 112-108 win and officially clinch their spot in the playoffs for a fifth straight season.

Joel Embiid was terrific as he had 44 points and 17 rebounds as well as five blocks to lead Philadelphia, James Harden had 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, and Tyrese Maxey added 11 points. Tobias Harris had 11 points and five rebounds and Georges Niang hopped off the bench and chipped in with eight points.

Here are the player grades following the big win:

Player grades: Joel Embiid, Sixers topple Hornets to stop 3-game skid

Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers knock off the Charlotte Hornets to put an end to their 3-game losing skid.

The Philadelphia 76ers returned home on Saturday afternoon looking to finally get back on the winning track after they dropped three winnable games. With the Charlotte Hornets in town, the Sixers had an opportunity to do so and they put their foot on the gas after halftime to get it done.

After a competitive first half, the Sixers broke the game open in the third quarter as they built a 29-point lead in the third on their way to a dominant and easy 144-114 win to stop the 3-game losing skid. Joel Embiid had himself a big day going for 29 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists to lead the way for Philadelphia and inch them closer to clinching a playoff berth.

James Harden added 12 points, 13 assists, and eight rebounds, Tobias Harris had 23 points and five rebounds, Tyrese Maxey had 19 with 17 coming after halftime, and Matisse Thybulle added 12 and three steals. Georges Niang chipped in with 10 off the bench and DeAndre Jordan had eight points and five rebounds while Shake Milton added 10 points, five assists, and four rebounds.

Here are the player grades following the win:

Player grades: Cade Cunningham leads Pistons past Joel Embiid, Sixers

Cade Cunningham had a big night as the Detroit Pistons knocked off Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.

DETROIT–The Philadelphia 76ers hit the road on Thursday looking to bounce back from a tough loss at home on Tuesday. Their opponent in this one was the Detroit Pistons who entered the contest with the 14th best record in the East at 20-56. Even with that record, the Pistons gave the Sixers a battle.

Philadelphia led for a majority of the game, but their largest lead was only eight as rookie Cade Cunningham kept Detroit in the game and, eventually, the Pistons were able to upset the Sixers 102-94. Cunningham had 27 points to pace Detroit and help the team get the job done while Saddiq Bey had 20 points.

Joel Embiid led the Sixers with 37 points and 15 rebounds, James Harden had 18 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, Tobias Harris added 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting and five rebounds, and Tyrese Maxey had 13. The bench unit could only muster up eight points on an overall tough night compared to 39 for the Pistons.

Here are the player grades following a bad loss:

Doc Rivers explains why Sixers played Paul Millsap over DeAndre Jordan

Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers explains why he played Paul Millsap over DeAndre Jordan on Tuesday.

PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers switched things up on Tuesday when they took on the Milwaukee Bucks in an important matchup at home. With the backup center spot still a position influx, the Sixers rocked with Paul Millsap over DeAndre Jordan.

Jordan had been the main backup to Joel Embiid since his arrival, but in Tuesday’s 118-116 loss to the Bucks, coach Doc Rivers made the decision to go with Millsap.

“They go small a lot and I think he moves better,” said Rivers. “In the first half, he was really good. Second half, I thought he struggled.”

The only stat Millsap recorded was a steal in this one in 9:26 of playing time. He did a good job against Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first half, but in the second half, the Greek Freak went off for 13 straight points when Millsap entered the game and that turned it into Milwaukee’s favor.

“I thought Millsap looked good in the first half, in the second half he struggled,” said Rivers. “I didn’t like DJ. We almost went with Paul Reed. That’s who we went between, but in Milwaukee that was a tough matchup for Paul was Giannis.”

Antetokounmpo had a wide-open dunk to end the third quarter that irked Rivers the most.

“The play I hate the most is at the end of the third, we were supposed to match up, we didn’t match up,” he finished. “We were supposed to have a guard guarding Giannis and we know we were supposed to and we allowed that to happen.”

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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DeAndre Jordan is not a solution to the Sixers’ backup center problem

The Philadelphia 76ers have a backup center problem, and DeAndre Jordan isn’t the answer.

The Philadelphia 76ers lost their 2019 Eastern Conference semifinal series to the Toronto Raptors well before Kawhi Leonard’s legacy-defining shot from the right corner.

You can point to the 7 minutes and 11 seconds the Sixers went without making a field goal in the fourth quarter of Game 4.

Or, you can point to the depth behind Joel Embiid. Slowed by a knee injury and a stomach illness throughout the series, Embiid’s intangible impact was there even if the box score numbers weren’t. Philadelphia outscored Toronto by 90 points in the 237 minutes Embiid played that that series. In the minutes Embiid was on the bench? Try minus-109. That is, Philadelphia was outscored by 109 points in 99 minutes.

The Sixers, you could very reasonably argue, lost an entire series in the 14 minutes per game in which Embiid was on the bench.

Why bring this up almost three seasons removed from when it happened?

Because that could be where the current Sixers are heading.

In the case of Embiid and his current reliever, the story trends similarly. In the 10 games he has played since DeAndre Jordan took the court, Embiid is only plus-18 in 350 minutes. In the 183 minutes in which Embiid has been off the floor over the last 11 games, Philadelphia is plus-2.

Part of that variance is the MVP favorite is that impactful. The other part, though, is the play of his tag partner.

Jordan is devoid of lateral quickness. That diminished ability means he doesn’t have the versatility to move rapidly from spot to spot. To be a positive contributor, he must rely on anticipatory thinking. The troubling signs are he isn’t doing that well.

Jordan maintains mutual position between the roller and the ball here. Not only does Furkan Korkmaz fight through the screen, but Russell Westbrook is shooting 36% on midrange jumpers this season (35th percentile). So, even mutual positioning against Westbrook is unnecessary. The rim should take priority. The slightest misstep has Jordan out of position, leaving the rim compromised.

Wenyen Gabriel pops here. There’s no high roll necessitating Jordan’s drop. Tyrese Maxey also slides over to tag the roller if he’s there. Malik Monk is an average jump-shooter dribbling off picks this season. Jordan should be granting him more respect than sitting at the elbow.

The foremost concern with Jordan is decision-making, at the rim and in space. Between silly fouls and uninspiring contests at the basket, and poor positioning and choice-toggling outside of the paint, Jordan hasn’t shown many signs of being to the task of what the Sixers need.

Critical is having players capable of containing switches and small-ball lineups in the playoffs. This final stretch of the regular season is a perfect opportunity to see what the younger and more athletic Paul Reed and Charles Bassey can do. But, Rivers has shown no interest in looking that far down his bench.

And it might just be this team’s downfall.

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Player grades: Devin Booker, Chris Paul lead Suns over Joel Embiid, Sixers

Devin Booker and Chris Paul led the Phoenix Suns over Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers in a back and forth affair.

The Philadelphia 76ers entered Footprint Center on Sunday looking to sweep the 3-game road trip after two wins in Los Angeles. It was going to be a tough challenge for them as the Phoenix Suns have been the best team in basketball all season and they have been hungry since they fell in the 2021 NBA finals.

The Sixers did get off to a hot start as they built a 15-point lead in the first half, but led by Devin Booker and Chris Paul, the Suns rallied and eventually scrapped and clawed their way to a 114-104 win over the Sixers. Booker had 22 points in the first quarter on his way to 35 for the game and Paul had 19 and 14 assists.

Joel Embiid led Philadelphia with 37 points and 15 rebounds, Tobias Harris had 17 points and eight boards, James Harden had 14, nine assists, and six rebounds, and Tyrese Maxey added 18.

Here are the player grades from a tough loss on the road:

Player grades: James Harden explodes as Sixers knock off Clippers

James Harden has a big game as the Philadelphia 76ers knock off the Los Angeles Clippers on the road.

The Philadelphia 76ers are in the process of trying to get everything on the right page as they continue to push towards the NBA Playoffs. After starting off the road trip the right way on Wednesday, they took on the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday looking to continue to build as a team.

The Sixers started off on the right foot against the scrappy Clippers as they used a steady diet of James Harden and Joel Embiid in order to build a 21-point halftime lead. Thanks to the strong play of their star duo, Philadelphia was able to knock off the Clippers 122-97 to improve to 2-0 on the 3-game road trip.

Harden had 29 points to tie his high with the Sixers, 15 rebounds, and seven assists to lead the way, Embiid added 27 points and 10 rebounds, Matisse Thybulle added 13 points, and Tobias Harris had 12. Tyrese Maxey did add 11 points, but on 4-for-11 shooting, and he had five rebounds.

Here are the player grades following the win in Los Angeles:

Player grades: Joel Embiid leads Sixers past Lakers to begin road trip

Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey were able to lead the Philadelphia 76ers past the Los Angeles Lakers on the road.

After an impressive win on Monday, the Philadelphia 76ers took their show on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday to begin a 3-game road trip on the West Coast. The Lakers were shorthanded with the team missing LeBron James and Anthony Davis as it was a big opportunity for Philadelphia.

After falling behind early, the Sixers were able to take control in the second quarter and then were able to cruise the rest of the way for a 126-121 win over the shorthanded Lakers. Joel Embiid had a big night as he finished with 30 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks to lead Philadelphia and James Harden had 24 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds.

Tyrese Maxey added 21 points, seven assists, and five rebounds, Tobias Harris added 20, seven rebounds, and five assists, and Georges Niang hopped off the bench to add nine points. DeAndre Jordan added nine points and seven rebounds and Furkan Korkmaz had six points.

Here are the player grades following the win to start the road trip:

Player grades: Tyrese Maxey, shorthanded Sixers shock Heat in win

Tyrese Maxey and the shorthanded Philadelphia 76ers somehow come up with a win over the Miami Heat at home.

The Philadelphia 76ers knew the battle they were up against on Monday night. It was the second night of a back-to-back after a late start on Sunday, they were hosting the No. 1 seed in the East in the Miami Heat, and they were down both James Harden and Joel Embiid. This seemed like it was going to be a very predictable result.

However, the shorthanded Sixers put up a huge fight and they did not back down from the Heat despite not having the heavy lifters. On a night where the Sixers were expected to be blown out, they were able to somehow someway come away with a 113-106 win over the Heat.

Shake Milton hopped off the bench and had 20 points, five rebounds, and six assists in a huge effort, Tyrese Maxey led Philadelphia with 28 points and five rebounds, Furkan Korkmaz had 18 and six rebounds off the bench, and Georges Niang had 15. Tobias Harris added 14 points, seven rebounds, and six assists.

Here are the player grades from a shocking win: