The Sixers dropped to 0-2 on the young NBA season with a heartbreaking 90-88 loss to Milwaukee in their home opener. While the defense looked much better after Tuesday’s pointsfest in Boston, it was the offense that fell apart in game two.
Only one player (James Harden) broke the 20-point barrier. Joel Embiid is averaging five turnovers to five assists through two games, and the Sixers’ supporting cast has been largely uninspiring. It’s far too early to panic — we’re still in October and the Sixers have faced arguably the two best teams in basketball — but alas, this is Philly. People will panic.
Let’s start with some positive takeaways from the narrow defeat.
Good elements of Sixers’ loss to Bucks
- James Harden is back… again!
A large portion of the fanbase is complaining about the volume of dribbling from James Harden. I’m sorry, but if anyone is stalling the offense right now it’s Joel Embiid (more on him in a bit). Harden does dribble a lot — more than anyone in the NBA — but he does so with purpose. No one manipulates his defender better than Harden. Even now, leaning more on his bruising physicality than his depleted burst, Harden can put his defender on skates with the subtlest of hesitation moves.
Harden has been the offensive engine for Philadelphia through two games. With Embiid looking like a fawn on ice, it has been up to Harden to calm things down and get the halfcourt offense in tempo. Not only is Harden creating opportunities for teammates, but he is showing himself capable of taking over games again. The Sixers entered the fourth quarter down by eight, and it was the Harden-led small ball unit — with Embiid on the bench — that led Philly back to a tie ballgame.
Harden posted 31 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists. That is vintage production — even if he’s using entirely different methods to score his points than what we once saw Houston. Harden feasted in the mid-range on Thursday. He only shot 1-of-7 from deep (after going 5-of-9 vs. Boston) and he still managed a masterful performance. That’s a good sign.
- Ageless P.J. Tucker
The Sixers purposefully and transparently mirrored P.J. Tucker’s minutes to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s minutes on Friday. The 37-year-old played 39 minutes and managed several momentum-swinging hustle plays in the fourth quarter. It ultimately wasn’t enough, but Tucker’s energy level and defensive versatility cannot go unnoticed. He guarded Jayson Tatum the other night and he guarded Donovan Mitchell in the preseason. He’s a special player.
- Paul Reed sighting and small-ball
Doc Rivers went to Paul Reed in the second quarter instead of Montrezl Harrell, the right decision for this particular matchup. Reed only played five minutes total (and Harrell made a brief two-minute cameo in the second half), but it’s good to see Rivers not wholeheartedly invested in Harrell. Reed is the better player and should slowly start to earn those minutes.
Speaking of Harrell, he very quickly got played off the floor (fair warning, he will almost always get outclassed by elite opponents). The Sixers instead went small around James Harden in the fourth quarter: P.J. Tucker, Tobias Harris, Danuel House Jr., and De’Anthony Melton. Basically Harden and four 3-and-D wings. It worked great. That was the Sixers’ most productive unit of the night and the game wouldn’t have been within reach for Philadelphia without it. Small ball works when you have five switchable players, multiple high-level defenders, and an offensive puppeteer of Harden’s caliber pulling the strings.
Bad elements of Sixers’ loss to Bucks
- Vintage Tobias Harris (the bad kind)
Friday night was something of a throwback for Tobias Harris. He looked timid and indecisive on offense and he sealed the Sixers’ fate with a mammoth defensive screw-up in the game’s final moments. Why was Wesley Matthews completely unguarded for the game-winning 3, you ask? Because Harris overhelped on Grayson Allen, who was well-defended and driving straight into Joel Embiid.
- Montrezl Harrell’s brief cameo
It’s fun to watch Montrezl Harrell feast on third-stringers in the preseason, but he is a deeply flawed player who will struggle constantly in the face of upper-tier competition. Harrell played less than three minutes and that was enough, even for Doc Rivers.
- Georges Niang’s one-way play
Georges Niang was the first player off the bench (the result of Tucker matching Giannis’ time on the bench more than anything else). He ended up playing just eight minutes. Those eight minutes were quite bad. Niang is truly valuable in the regular season because of his volume shooting, but good teams with high-level athletes like Milwaukee are always going to give him trouble. He’s similar to Harrell in that way: fun in the games that don’t matter, but unplayable when the rubber meets the road later on.
- Transition defense
The Sixers evidently still can’t guard teams on the fast break. Especially when Joel Embiid decides multiple times per game that he’s just not going to get back on defense because he didn’t like the call.
Ugly elements of Sixers’ loss to Bucks
- Joel Embiid’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad game
Joel Embiid was quite bad in Tuesday’s opener against Boston. He managed to one-up his own struggles on Thursday, however, posting 15 points on 6-of-21 shooting. Brook Lopez put Embiid in jail on the block and Philly struggled to establish their All-Star center in other ways. He committed four turnovers and once again toggled between disinterest and teenage sulkiness.
.Again, there were multiple instances where a “bad” call led to Embiid simply not getting back on defense. Multiple wide-open Brook Lopez 3s were the result. Embiid looked completely unprepared for the length and pressure applied by Milwaukee’s defense. Every iso felt forced and unnatural. Embiid looked so much more patient and precise with his offensive approach last season. Where has that been through two games?
It’s also notable that Embiid refused to speak with reporters after the game. That’s pretty weak stuff and should not be looked upon favorably. He’s the leader of this franchise. If Philly has any hope of winning the championship, it starts with Embiid. He has to play like the MVP-level superstar he is. It doesn’t really matter how well Harden plays if Embiid completely tanks the offense every time he touches the ball.
No one should be panicking right now. Embiid tends to start every season slow. This has been a particularly egregious two-game stretch, but the recent track record for Embiid is too strong. He will return to form eventually. It’s only a matter of time.