Maxey’s shooting woes continue as Sixers lose embarrassingly ugly game to Raptors

The Sixers played awful from start to finish as they were beaten by a shorthanded (and not very good) Raptors team in Toronto Friday night.

Yeah, it’s fair to call this one a disaster.

The Sixers fell 115-107 to an equally injury-riddled Toronto Raptors squad in a game that was nearly three hours long despite not going to overtime. The Sixers shot 38% from the field as a team and 31% from three-point range.

Kelly Oubre Jr. led all scorers with 28 points, shooting 9-of-17 and 3-of-6 from three-point range. Tyrese Maxey struggled again, finishing with 24 points, shooting 6-of-23 from the field and 2-of-12 from three. He only made one field goal in the first half. Scottie Barnes was the Raptors’ leading scorer with 27.

While the Sixers remained without Joel Embiid and Paul George, Toronto was down R.J. Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

• More lineup tweaks to start off the night as Caleb Martin was back in the starting lineup in place of KJ Martin, the same change made in the second half on Wednesday. Kyle Lowry also started in place of Eric Gordon. Nick Nurse has said he’d like Lowry to have a smaller role this year, though his options to get Maxey some off-ball reps are limited at the moment.
• It only took a a couple of minute for Andre Drummond to get into foul trouble, Guerschon Yabusele quickly hit the bench as well. Adem Bona even saw the floor for 51 seconds in the first, ironically right as the KJ Martin small-ball minutes really started to get going. Martin Jr. was credited for a steal and a block in the quarter.
• Maxey was off to a much better start, getting on the board with a floater he was able to draw contact on for an and-1. He knocked down a couple of threes off the dribble using Yabusele as a screener, and threw this behind the back pass to Oubre. It’s certainly the flashiest he’s thrown in his pro career.

• Unsurprisingly, points were hard to come by again outside of Oubre and Maxey. Eric Gordon had an interesting quarter to say the least. Both of his field goal attempts ended by getting blocked at the rim, the second was a very ambitious attempt to posterize Chris Boucher. Credit to Gordon, he did still get up and was able to get to the line on his third attempt. The teams combined for 20 free throws in the first as the Sixers led by one.

Second Quarter

• Nurse continued to go deep into the bench as Reggie Jackson checked into the game to start the quarter, and Jared McCain a few minutes later. It didn’t start well as the Sixers got just one stop over the first three minutes. Foul trouble continued to be an issue as Lowry and Caleb Martin each picked up their third.
• It only got worse as the Sixers struggled to generate offense. They had a four-minute stretch where they only scored four points and Toronto was able to stretch their lead to double digits. It was again a lot of reckless driving towards the basket. Jakob Poeltl went into the half with four blocks, while Boucher and Jonathan Mogbo each had three.

• As if there weren’t enough fouls in this game, the Raptors decided to do hack-a-Drummond, in the first half, for some reason. Drummond split that pair, as well as his next trip when he got a steal on the ensuing possession, which put an end to that. The Sixers trailed by six at the half.

Third Quarter

• The Sixers just about picked up right where they left off by turning the ball over four times within the first two and a half minutes of the second half. They were able to take advantage of the whistle-happy refs by getting Poeltl called for his third and fourth, but they were still only keeping pace with Toronto despite the Raptors starting the quarter shooting 4-of-13.

• Maxey, having played 20 straight minutes spanning back to the second, went pretty quiet in the third. He only took two field goals in the third, both misses, though he did get to the line a couple of times. He also went the second and third quarter without recording an assist after dishing out four in the first.
• Ricky Council IV checked back in after playing just 30 seconds in the first quarter. His skillset of being able to get to the line was certainly needed, but he had a rough go of things. He got lost in a set which eventually led to a turnover, missed an open three, and nearly didn’t get a shot off as the quarter was expiring. It’s felt like a pretty sporadic month in general for Council. The Sixers again trailed by six at the end of the third.

Fourth Quarter

• Not only were the Sixers getting beat by tons of back cuts to the basket, but they made those high percentage looks even more valuable for the Raptors. Way too many times they softly fouled the cutter going up with the ball giving him an easy and-1 opportunity. Meanwhile on their end, the Sixers missed 13 free throws. It’s hard to win giving away that many points.
• They hadn’t shot the ball well all night, but they made just one of their first eight field goals to start the fourth. The Raptors were on a 20-3 run spanning back to the third, turning this game way out of control. Maxey’s pull-ups came up way short as the defense continued to key in on him.
• Thanks to a couple of steals and of course, free throws, the Sixers did cobble just enough decent possessions together to cut the lead to single digits. It then took two more minutes to get the lead under nine, but Oubre hit a three to cut it to six with 45 seconds remaining. The Raptors made their free throws the rest of the way, making the comeback effort far too little far too late.
• The good news is that the Sixers have quite a high bar to clear for worst loss of the season for the next 80 games. They’ll try again for their first win of the season when they’re back in action Sunday afternoon. They’ll be in Indiana to take on the Pacers at 3:30 p.m. ET.