The Philadelphia 76ers came into tonight’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies looking to bounce back from their loss Wednesday night to Tobias Harris and the Detroit Pistons. It’s been a rough start to the season for the Sixers, who have started their season 1-3, while Memphis has a 3-3 record in the Western Conference.
The Sixers were still without two of their stars, Paul George and Joel Embiid, who were both still recovering from their respective knee injuries. Tyrese Maxey has done his best to try to keep the team afloat, but his offense hasn’t been efficient, so the team offense has struggled. They will need someone else to step up to take the pressure off of the all-star guard.
The Grizzlies have also dealt with injuries to start this season, with Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. missing time already. They were without Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart, and a few other players in their Saturday matchup with the Sixers. Memphis came into Philly coming off a blowout win against the Milwaukee Bucks, looking to notch another win under their belts.
The first quarter started off slow offensively for both squads, with the Sixers shooting only 30 percent through the first half of the quarter. After that first timeout of the quarter, the offense got going for both teams, but for Philly, Kelly Oubre Jr went to work. He hit three of his four three-point attempts in the first quarter. Oubre and Tyrese Maxey helped the Sixers with solid shooting from deep to allow them to lead after one quarter, 28-24.
Early in the second quarter, the Sixers got a scoring boost from Eric Gordon off the bench. He was able to get ten points in the quarter to lift up an offense that had been struggling a little. Maxey and Gordon helped the Sixers build a 7-point lead midway through the quarter. For the Grizzlies, it wasn’t the household names who led them in scoring. It was two-way player Jaylen Wells who made the Sixers pay when the defense lapsed on him. He had 14 first-half points, while Ja Morant dished his way to seven first-half assists. While the home team went cold, Memphis started to heat up and ended the first half up seven.
The second half was all Grizzlies, with Ja Morant asserting himself early in the third quarter to help push their lead into double digits. It wasn’t just Morant who dominated, it was little known Jay Huff who started to rain wide open threes down on the Sixers. Rebounding also started to rear its ugly head again for a squad that has continued to have issues with it for the last few years.
The bench squad, including Jared McCain, tried to make a push in the fourth and cut the lead down to 14 points, but it wasn’t enough. McCain was the only bright spot in an otherwise brutal second half for the Sixers all around. The Grizzlies toppled the Sixers 124-107, dropping them to 1-4 on the season before they head out west for a three-game swing.
Must see TV
Ja Morant continues to show that when he is healthy and focused on basketball, he is one of the best attractions in the NBA. Although he wasn’t scoring as much tonight, he still made his team better around him. He made some insane passes throughout, making the Sixers pay for focusing so much on him. He found shooters in the corners and had a ridiculous mid-air behind-the-back pass in the first half. When he did find his rhythm on offense, he had the crowd ohhhing and ahhhing due to his acrobatic layups. If the NBA forgot how good he is, he would surely be back to show them who he is.
Still an Achilles’ heel
Rebounding, which has haunted the Sixers for a couple of years now, showed up as a problem area again against the Grizzlies. They were outrebounded 52-33 (11 offensive), which led to extra chances for Memphis to score. They were also dominated in the paint, giving up 70 to their 34. The team is obviously missing one of their best rebounders and their best overall defender with Embiid out, but they have to be better. When asked about it postgame, head coach Nick Nurse commented, “We had a difficult time on the glass, we had a difficult time guarding the low post…we had a difficult time kind with some lob stuff at the rim.”
The team has an obvious hole for a true “power forward” spot, and they need to explore filling it.
Non-household names
Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr ended up dominating the Sixers in the end, but throughout much of the game, it was the nonhousehold names that did damage. Two-way player Jaylen Wells did damage in the first half, while Jay Huff did his in the second half. Wells ended the night with 15 points and five rebounds, while Huff scored 20 points and pulled down five rebounds of his own.
It seems like nights like these where rather unknown players have good nights against the Sixers. If the game plan is to let the “others” beat you, you have to do a better job of shutting down the main guys. The defense can’t give up both.
