Embiid, Maxey Give Houston Problems as Sixers Survive Rockets

Joel Embiid notched a triple-double while Tyrese Maxey scored 36 points and dished 10 assists to power the Sixers to a thrilling victory over the visiting Houston Rockets on Thursday.

Here's what happened.

Embiid dominates

Embiid's play was massive, both in production and importance. Paul George committed his third foul early in the second quarter, rendering him out of Nick Nurse's rotation for the remainder of the first half. Embiid stepped up, making up for George's absence and then some.

The Rockets used smaller players, both in height and weight, as primary assignments on Embiid often. So he raised the aggression, throwing his weight around to force Houston to send help on Embiid's dribble.

A credit to Embiid, he only committed two turnovers in the first half (ended up with five for the game, not so great). Given that smaller guys have to be very handsy with Embiid and the arms in his face multipled as the game drew closer to halftime, it was critical that he didn't have a high-turnover first half.

Unlike in the game against the Indiana Pacers earlier this week, Embiid mixed his mid-range game into a package of physical play in the paint. He hit cutters and open shooters from various spots on the floor. His passing reads have been excellent lately. That's a matter of both diversity and angle.

Stationed near the block, he hit Oubre for a strong-side corner three with an over-the-head bounce pass. On the opposite wing, he baited VJ Edgecombe's defender to shade away from the rookie and then fed him an open three. He's finding Dominick Barlow for baseline cuts after the helper commits to crowding Embiid.

He maintained stamina as the game went on, battling on the glass on both ends as the fourth quarter ticked down to crunch time. Perhaps the most important part of Embiid's second half, he limited mistakes as his minutes rose. Six assists against two turnovers between the fourth quarter and overtime.

It was almost certainly the best game Embiid has played since he scored 70 points against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs exactly two years ago to the night.

Maxey breaks out

While Embiid did most of his scoring work in the first half, Maxey shouldered the load in the second half. His three-point shot is slumping of late. But I'm more inclined to attribute the inaccuracy on Thursday to just an off night from deep than to fatigue. The reason being that Maxey was outstanding on twos in this game.

Whereas Maxey wasn't getting all the way to the rim much at all in the loss to the Phoenix Suns earlier this week, he refused to be denied on drives in this game. The Rockets are huge, and he went at them all night long. He would've had a layup to give the Sixers the lead with three seconds to play had the officials not botched a goaltending call.

The biggest difference was, first and foremost, that he had Embiid on the court with him. Embiid's screening creates immense separation for Maxey, allowing him to attack space when the defense isn't in a switch-heavy scheme.

The other difference was that Alperen Sengun was Embiid's defender in the two-man game and he could not keep up with Maxey at all in this game. When he played high out of the screen, Maxey blew by him and got into the paint, forcing help rotations. When Sengun played a step or two below, Maxey stepped into an open jumper.

Quiet first half, loud second half for Paul George

George did not fill up the box score by any stretch of the imagination on this night. As mentioned before, he was mostly stuck to the bench with foul trouble in the first half. It deprived him of establishing any rhythm as a scorer, although I'm not sure he was going to do much against a mostly young, long and strong team like the Rockets.

But he didn't go silent all night. George knocked down a critical corner three to keep the Sixers within one possession of the Rockets when it looked like Philadelphia was about to cough up yet another one at home. He kicked off overtime with another three at the top of the key. His most critical moment of the game was rotating off Amen Thompson on a drive when he made a dump-off pass to Sengun. George stood strong against Sengun at the rim with the Sixers leading by two in the final minute of overtime. He stayed down on Sengun's pump fake and then promptly swatted his layup away when the big man thought the coast was clear, securing a massive stop for Philadelphia.

The window should be cracked for Jared McCain

It's a damning indictment of both Quentin Grimes and McCain that they're both verging on being unplayable. Grimes is shooting the ball about as poorly as McCain was when he was getting semi-regular minutes. But Grimes' decisions on both ends of the floor drive you crazy. He had a pair of reckless contests, slapping Sengun to no effect on a layup that sent the big man to the line for a three-point opportunity. He fouled Reed Sheppard on a corner three, sending him to the line for a four-point opportunity later in the game.

While this certainly wasn't the matchup to roll with McCain, it's increasingly difficult to point out anything that Grimes does better than McCain does. The only thing he has over McCain is the explosion off the bounce. But he's played poorly enough to open the door for McCain again. It's worth a try.

Spare thoughts

Another game of insane shooting for Oubre. He is 9-for-15 from three over his last two games. His four against Houston were double the number any of his teammates contributed.

Appreciated George taking primary assignment on Kevin Durant for stretches of this game. Durant was a beast, but George played through foul trouble and did not allow himself to exist as a team defender playing away from the opposing superstar.

That missed goaltending call was absolutely egregious. Nurse and Maxey took the high road when asked about it after the game, but it could've very easily driven Philadelphia into a demoralized spiral heading into ovetime. A salute to the Sixers for having the maturity to stay with that game and close it out.