Sixers continue to be a mess without Embiid and PG, fall to 1-4 with loss to Grizzlies

After a decent start, the Sixers were mostly uncompetitive in a lopsided loss to the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday night.

It shouldn’t look this bad though, right?

The Sixers continue to trek on without Paul George or Joel Embiid as they fell to the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday night 124-107. Philly surrendered a 14-1 run to end the first half and it only snowballed from there.

Tyrese Maxey once again led the Sixers, he finished with 23 points and six assists, shooting 8-of-19 from the floor and 4-of-9 from three. The lone positive was Jared McCain having a solid second half. He finished the night 19 points, shooting 8-of-16 from the floor and 2-of-6 from three.

Jaren Jackson Jr. led all scorers with 27 points while Ja Morant finished with 18 points and 12 assists.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

• It was another trying start for the offense, as they missed their first six shots of the game, taking three and a half minutes to get on the board. They went to a fair amount of Andre Drummond post ups early, which was odd given how big Memphis’ starting five was. He was also favoring his chest after falling into the stanchion in the first minute of the game.
• The Sixers’ role players probably can’t shoot this poorly from three forever, and someone who saw some positive regression early was Oubre, who knocked down three triples in the first. The offense was still basically “Let Kelly and Tyrese cook”, but they’ll take points any way they can get them. The Sixers actually ended up shooting 50% from three on 12 attempts in the quarter.

• While his dunk attempts were a bit ambitious, Caleb Martin was able to draw contact on nearly all of his drives. He got to the line eight times in the first, including two when Jaren Jackson Jr. was called for a flagrant for hitting him in the head on a fast break. The Sixers held a four-point lead after the first.

Second Quarter

• A new quarter and a new role player catching fire. Eric Gordon knocked down a couple deep threes that caused a Grizzlies timeout. He was successful on his first two drives as well, the second being a floater in a crowded lane with the shot clock winding down.
• The backcourt of Gordon along with Kyle Lowry and Jared McCain does pose some size problems, but it was actually the small-ball unit with Guerschon Yabusele that Memphis had an easier time with. Nick Nurse only let that go a couple of minutes before putting Drummond back out there with Yabu. The most impressive piece of rim protection was KJ Martin getting back to block Jay Huff. McCain did an excellent job to finish the play on the other end.

• After an impressive and-1 from Maxey, the Sixers were held scoreless for over three minutes. Their only point over the final 3:38 was a Maxey free throw from an away-from-play foul. After a half of quick decisions, they took a lot of meandering possessions deep into the shot clock, and it’s hard to get good looks doing that. That allowed the Grizzlies to take a seven-point lead into halftime.

Third Quarter

• The Sixers struggled from two-point range in the first half, and opened up the second by driving right at Zach Edey and Jackson two possessions in a row. Both shots were easily contested. After the Sixers did get a couple buckets, they then turned the ball over on four straight possessions.
• The most life the Sixers showed for the first half of the quarter was a pair of threes from Lowry, but those only cut the lead to 10. Nurse continued to try different things by throwing Reggie Jackson out there for his first real minutes of the season. Jackson fumbled a dribble hand off on his first touch of the game.

• While Drummond looked particularly bad in the third, the entire team did a pretty poor job rotating on defense. The Grizzlies were 48% from three and it felt they did so on very open looks. Jay Huff was the game’s leading scorer through three— he had 20 points shooting 70% from the field and 5-of-7 from three. The Sixers trailed by 17 after three.

Fourth Quarter

• It’s nice that McCain is doing other things well while waiting for that three-point shot to come around. He knocked one down in the fourth that was his first made three of the regular season. He had a couple of nice drives early in the quarter as well, but the Grizzlies lead continued to grow.

• That one going down definitely helped the rookie’s confidence. Out of the timeout he knocked down another one from the coach’s stripe as he went on to score seven straight points for the Sixers. It only made a small dent in Memphis’ lead, but it did wake up the fans a bit.
• The Sixers’ slim chance at pulling off a miracle pretty much died when Drummond missed a point blank dunk. It would have cut the lead to 10 had he been able to finish it. He finished shooting only 1-of-7 along with his nine rebounds. The Sixers are not going to be able to win games shorthanded if this is what they get out of Drummond.
• Up next is a road trip for the Sixers as they’ll head out west this week. They’ll kick things off Monday in Phoenix when they take on the Suns at 10:15 p.m ET.