McCain drops rookie career-high 27, carries Sixers to wild OT win vs. Hornets

The Sixers blew a 16-point lead and were forced to play overtime, but rookie Jared McCain bailed them out again and again in a desperately needed win over the Hornets Sunday.

Hey, look at that, a win!

The Sixers narrowly avoided catastrophe in Paul George’s home debut, knocking off the Charlotte Hornets 107-105 Sunday night. They led by as much as 16, but needed overtime to get the job done.

Jared McCain, asked to carry the offense for most a lot of the second half, finished with 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting. Eleven of those points came in the fourth quarter.

Guerschon Yabusele had another standout game off the bench, finishing with 20 points and eight rebounds playing the bulk of the center minutes in the second half.

George made some tough shots but struggled again from three. He finished with 15 points, shooting 6-of-17 and 1-of-8 from three. He also had three boards and nine assists. He did not play in overtime.

LaMelo Ball led all scorers with 38.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

• George was pretty aggressive early, taking the Sixers’ first two shots of the game. His first home bucket of the season came on a pretty standard drive to the basket. He had an injury scare just three minutes into the game, because of course he did. Tidjane Salaun accidentally hit him in the face and he was down for a couple minutes, but ultimately didn’t leave the game. Between that and the time needed to mop up the Sixers’ bench, it was a very odd quarter.

• Charlotte’s start was aggressive as well. Ball took their first seven shots of the game and got up an early 10 points. The rest of his teammates were slow to follow, as the Hornets scored two points over the next four minutes of action.
• On top of not making shots, the Sixers had a pretty sloppy quarter with six turnovers. Nick Nurse mixed things up in the backcourt again, turning to Jeff Dowtin Jr. for his first non-garbage time minutes of the season. Eric Gordon was also back out there after not playing Friday against the Lakers. Dowtin knocked down a three, their only three of the first half, and went to the line to score their final five points of the quarter, giving them a 16-15 lead.

Second Quarter

• Dowtin kept things rolling by opening up the quarter with another drive to the basket. Jared McCain had some success driving to the paint as well with a jumper and a trip to the line himself. Dowtin finished with nine points in his first shift, providing a desperately needed bench spark.

• Andre Drummond played his best half in a while, taking advantage of a small Hornets team that got even smaller when foul trouble forced them to play Grant Williams at center. Drummond was able to clean up thanks to his size advantage, but he did get stood up and blocked by Williams on his last post-up before subbing out. That unit had tough time guarding Charlotte playing five-out as well.
• While just about everybody on the court picked it up offensively after the first, Kelly Oubre Jr. was still struggling to get going. He missed his first four shots of the game and his two free throw attempts. He finally got on the board with a couple drives and a cut to the dunker spot, but wasn’t able to get a dunk off before the buzzer sounded, keeping it a one-point lead for the Sixers. Oubre’s cutting and slashing just make a lot more sense when Drummond isn’t on the floor.

Third Quarter

• Despite Drummond having a better first half offensively, Nurse still felt the right move was to have Guerschon Yabusele start the second half instead. Yabu was also able to easily win post ups against the extremely small-ball Hornets’ lineup.
• George was making some really tough shots from inside the arc, but he couldn’t get a three to fall until early in the third. To be fair, that pretty much describes the entire team to this point. George was having another nice night passing the ball. He was up to eight assists by the end of the third. It seems like he’s developed a little bit of chemistry with Yabusele — four of George’s assists went to him in the third.

• So if Drummond is going to let the corpse of Taj Gibson grab offensive rebounds over him, which happened in the third, there’s just really nothing he brings to the table. He’ll have time to play through this because the team doesn’t really have any other options at the moment.
• The offense flowed pretty well in the third, and it’s no coincidence that three-point shots were falling. McCain did a solid job steering the bench unit with 10 points in the quarter. He knocked down a pair of threes to give the Sixers a 10-point lead heading into the fourth.

Fourth Quarter

• The fourth quarter started much like the second, with Dowtin and McCain doing their thing off the dribble. They also held the Hornets to two points over the first three minutes which allowed the Sixers to expand their lead a bit.
• The Hornets got going though when Ball rattled in just his second three of the night. That did the trick as he went on to make his next two. That was fuel for a 14-2 Charlotte run that quickly cut the lead back down to one.
• Charlotte eventually did retake the lead with a little over three minutes remaining. Despite the starters being back out there, the Sixers still ran a lot of their offense through McCain. He slid down for a corner three that put the Sixers back up two. George found Caleb Martin on the next possession for another corner three, but Charlotte responded with one of their own.

• Martin played very good defense on Brandon Miller to force a stop on the next possession, making it a free throw battle the rest of the way. Kyle Lowry split a pair, leaving the door open with 10 seconds remaining. Ball drilled a three falling away in the corner to tie it up with eight seconds left. Much like the Suns game, George dribbled the clock out but couldn’t get the jumper to go, sending this one to overtime.

Overtime

• When faced with the decision to go for tonight or play it safe, the Sixers chose the safe option by not having George out there at the start of overtime. They went big with both Drummond and Yabusele out there, but the Hornets still grabbed three offensive rebounds and Drummond got the hook.
• It took three minutes for either team to make a field goal in OT, and it was Yabusele with a post up. Ball came right back down the floor and drove his way to an and-1 as the teams went on to swap leads on the next four possessions.
• McCain played excellent defense to force a key shot clock violation, and appeared to be fouled on the next possession. Replay review overturned it though, calling it a clean steal for Ball. Charlotte got an open three but missed, Yabusele missed both of his free throws but Caleb Martin got the offensive rebound, taking a crucial three seconds off the clock. Martin made both, but Yabusele fouled Grant Williams with 0.7 seconds left. Luckily, it was not a shooting foul so he only got two shots. Williams tried to intentionally miss the second one but missed the rim, giving the ball back to the Sixers and finally putting this one away.
• Next up is the first NBA cup action this season. The Sixers will kick that off Tuesday at home at 7:30 against the New York Knicks on TNT. A big fella is reportedly set to make his debut that night as well.