PG, Maxey shine (from what we saw) as Sixers drop first real preseason game to T-Wolves

Paul George and Tyrese Maxey looked ready for the regular season as the Sixers lost to the Timberwolves in a preseason game in Iowa.

Paul George took the court for the first time as a Sixer in the team’s second preseason contest of 2024 — and what a viewing experience it was.

Philadelphia fell 121-111 to the Minnesota Timberwolves, though the broadcast only caught the last three quarters of it. George made it worth it though, finishing with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting and 4-of-9 from three. Tyrese Maxey had 21 points shooting 50% from the field and Kelly Oubre Jr. finished with 16 points shooting 6-of-9 from the field.

Joel Embiid did not make the trip for Philadelphia, and Minnesota did not play Rudy Gobert or Julius Randle. With the Sixers playing tomorrow as well, Nick Nurse gave a pretty good idea pregame of who will be playing tonight and who will tomorrow.

So, I’ll do my best to do more than summarize what the broadcast experience was like, but here goes.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

• So the broadcast caught like a combined three minutes of action. Most of the time you’d get about 30 seconds of play before being treated to a technical difficulties graphic. It doesn’t sound like Sixers fans missed anything. They shot 26.9% from the floor and 25% from behind the three-point line in the opening frame.
• Miraculously, one of the few things the broadcast caught in the first quarter was George’s first shot attempt— it was a long two that he missed. So we had to listen to George’s first made basket in a Sixers jersey. At least the social media team had a good view.

• Nurse once again went to Guerschon Yabusele first off the bench to relieve Andre Drummond, despite playing a slightly larger team than the New Zealand Breakers. Yabu only took one shot in the first half but it was a three. The Sixers trailed by eight after one.

Second Quarter

• So the broadcast was back for the beginning of the second, where we learned there was also supposed to be a Wolves radio team attached to it — we didn’t get any of them in the first. It went down again for another minute or so but came back uninterrupted for the rest of the quarter.
• In that time, Jared McCain and Adem Bona checked in, two of the few players who could play both games this weekend. Drummond found McCain on a nice back cut which resulted in free throws; McCain’s only points of the half.
• The broadcast really came back at the perfect time, as George began to knock down some shots. He had a couple nice drives to the basket, but was really catching fire with his pull-up threes. He finished the half with 18 points, shooting 4-of-8 from downtown, assuring no one cared the Sixers trailed by 17 at the half. For anyone unable to watch the game at all, Liberty Ballers’ own Erin Grugan clipped together some of the televised PG buckets from the half.

Third Quarter

• The starters were back out there to start the second half. They ended up playing about half of the quarter. They gave a glimpse into how disruptive this team can be on the wing, generating a steal on three straight possessions in the half.
• The Wolves comfortably led by around 20 for much of this game, but the Sixers got hot and really chipped away at that lead. Maxey got hot, able to finish with 21 points after a pretty cold start, and George had another flashy and-1 before ending his night.

• Reggie Jackson checked in for the first time at the 5:34 mark, and Ricky Council IV not long after. It feels significant that Jackson has only played in the second half so far, but of course, a lot can change. Minnesota ripped off a quick run to push their lead back up to eight after the third.

Fourth Quarter

• The Sixers opened the frame with a unit of rotation hopefuls. Something they did really well no matter who was in the game was turn the Wolves over, and that helped them a lot in cutting away that big lead. They finished the game with nine steals.
• It wasn’t just sloppy preseason basketball they took of advantage of. Council had his patented transition dunk of the night, KJ Martin soundly rejected a Josh Minnott poster attempt, and Jared McCain got some shots to fall from three as well.

• Even with the pregame split of who will play today and who will play tomorrow, we still saw just about the entire roster at some point tonight. The only players not to see the floor tonight were Max Fiedler, Isiah Mobley and Judah Mintz. The remaining group of two-ways fell just short of pulling off the 20-point comeback.
• The Sixers are back in action again *checks notes… tomorrow night? OK. Well, you’ll be able to watch an actual broadcast feed if you have NBA League Pass, as they take on the Celtics in Boston tomorrow at 8 p.m.