The Philadelphia 76ers were at a disadvantage against the Brooklyn Nets hours before the game even began. VJ Edgecombe, Dominick Barlow and Quentin Grimes fell victim to a team-wide illness on Tuesday night. As a result, Philadelphia held a top-heavy rotation and had to rely upon Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George.
Although each player has had their moments throughout the season, the trio has yet to succeed collectively. The Maxey-Embiid-George tandem lacks cohesion, which contributed to the 76ers’ offensive troubles in their 114-106 loss to the Brooklyn Nets 114-106 at Xfinity Mobile Arena last night. Philadelphia’s big three have potential, it’s just a matter of stacking games together to develop chemistry.
Philadelphia lost all three games that Maxey, Embiid and George played this year, including yesterday’s. The remaining two defeats were the 76ers’ 112-108 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on December 7th and their 142-134 shortcoming to the Atlanta Hawks one week prior. This trio doesn’t deserve all the blame, but Philadelphia’s offensive woes in two of three performances are not a coincidence.
Having played with each other for six years, Maxey and Embiid developed an efficient two-man game that they displayed against Brooklyn. But, George is often in the opposing corner watching uninvolved rather than being used in the action. While this occurred last night, it has been a notable problem since Philadelphia’s big three first took the court last season.
The Maxey-Embiid pick-and-roll is one of the 76ers’ most reliable offensive sources, but when the Nets figured out how to limit its damage, Philadelphia had little to fall back on. Brooklyn constantly blitzed Maxey, allowing Embiid scoring opportunities down low. The 2022-2023 Most Valuable Player made it pay, scoring a team-high 27 points on 73.9% true-shooting.
However, it played into the Nets’ hands as they seemingly wanted to slow the 76ers’ pace and force them into a heliocentric approach. Brooklyn also limited Maxey’s ability to get downhill, chasing him off the ball and walling off the paint on every drive. He finished with 13 points on 4-13 shooting from the field.
Given the one-time all-star’s struggles and Philadelphia’s depleted roster, George shouldering a larger responsibility could’ve changed last night’s outcome. He tallied 19 points, using 14 field-goal attempts, most of which came when Embiid wasn’t on the floor. George’s shots were largely against unset defenses or designed isolations.
These are looks that normally suit the nine-time all-star, but the 76ers didn’t draw up many plays for him to establish a rhythm to capitalize on said opportunities. Philadelphia shot 40.7% from the field and 25.9% from three-point range, tallying just 16 assists in a game where George’s threat as a scorer could've forced the Nets into rotation to generate more ball movement. The 76ers’ trio has totaled 18 games through two seasons, so not having many actions including all three players is understandable. This should be an issue that fixes itself with time.