How the Sixers Earned a Character Win on the Second Night of a Back-to-Back

Tyrese Maxey put up an MVP-level scoring display to lead the Sixers past the Minnesota Timberwolves for a much-needed win. It was the second night of a back-to-back for Philadelphia, and the Sixers showed what kind of character they have after Saturday's horrendous loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Here's what happened.

First quarter

If you found yourself raising an eyebrow prior to the game, you were justified. The Sixers, losers of four in a row without Joel Embiid, all of which have been double-digit defeats, could desperately use some sort of adjustment to shake up the monotony. A good defensive start would help and at least give Philadelphia a chance to run more in transition.

An easy way to shake things up? You could start with the frontcourt. Dominick Barlow and Andre Drummond have played 651 possessions together this season, per Cleaning The Glass. Opponents are shooting a very efficient 71.9 percent at the rim with those two on the court. Barlow and Adem Bona, on the other hand, have played 353 possessions together this season. Opponents are shooting a rather poor 62.4 percent at the rim in those minutes. If they're doing a good job of taking away arguably the most efficient shots in the game, why not begin there, with a simple shakeup in the starting five?

This was an "old man yells at cloud" quarter for this writer. A couple things had me grinding my teeth. First, the Sixers have this beautiful, simple Spain pick-and-roll action down pat, it often yields them threes off a curl or a dunk off the back screen for the big. Why is that set down pat but other creative actions evade them?

Second, Quentin Grimes needed seven seconds to make a decision with the ball, dribbling back and forth between hands as he seemingly tried to solve parabolas in his head. The shot the Sixers landed on? A Kelly Oubre Jr. long two off the drible, which clanked short off the rim. The best thing you can do to help yourselves when Embiid is not available is play fast and snappy in the halfcourt. They refuse to do that with any semblance of consistency.

Second quarter

Philadelphia does get some credit for the effort they put forth in the second quarter, a period that saw their lead expand to as many as 16 points and keep the Timberwolves at an arm's length. The Sixers didn't let themselves go down softly in transition. There were moments early in the game that the energy to get back was terrible even if the odds of getting a stop were slow, like when Maxey telegraphed a pass into Anthony Edwards' hands for a pick-six and then just slumped his shoulders and didn't even bother to run back as atonement for the mistake. But the Sixers' effort to get back left little to criticize in the second quarter.

Guys pushed themselves to blow up passes and stop easy scores. Cam Payne nearly went spiraling out of bounds trying to sprint to get a hand on a long pass. The Sixers didn't just stop at the deflection. They pursued the ball to try to save it to a teammate and start a transition opportunity for Philadelphia. Even as some possessions resulted in zeroes, they kept Minnesota from storming back by limiting them on their possessions.

That is how you have to play if you're going to win short-handed. Flying, urgently and with pride in the marginal details.

I've found Maxey's approach on offense to be disappointing lately. Some of it has to be his fault because he can't just get credit for the good. But he's often at the mercy of what his teammates provide in support. But his decisions were very good in the first half.

With Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid both unavailable for Minnesota, he balanced his shot diet. Aggressive with the threes to punish lack of urgency to hug the ball when it was in his hands. And yet, not falling in love with the three. There was a possession in which he missed a deep one and promptly relocated to the corner to set up for the pass on Drummond's offensive rebound. Drummond spun the ball out to him and Maxey, rather than settling for a catch-and-shoot three against a heavy closeout, waited for the commitment and then stepped into a pull-up mid range jumper.

But the bigger picture was that he didn't just throw up jumper after jumper. Maxey manipulated speeds, stuttering off the dribble to get moving defenders off balance and then exploding past them for scores at the hoop. He hunted mismatches, getting slower-footed defenders on his hip before pulling up for floaters and getting the contact on the way up.

Third quarter

Keeping the focus on Maxey, he has not exactly exuded positive spirit lately as the losses pile up and Embiid remains out. Having said that, he sustained his approach from the second quarter into the third quarter. Maxey was everything in the Sixers keeping the Timberwolves at bay in what has inexplicably been a historically awful frame for Philadelphia.

His workload and general fatigue can lead to some awful decisions, like chucking up deep threes with ample time left on the shot clock. That was not the case in the third quarter or, really, in this game at all. Maxey continued to maintain the diversity of his shot selection, acting on gaps in Minnesota's defense over and over again. He put on a clinic with scores in the paint, finding the perfect touch on floaters or getting all the way to the hoop. The Sixers won the third quarter by six. Maxey scored 13 of the team's 26 points.

Fourth quarter

Even after Maxey's buzzer-beating floater to push the Sixers' lead to 16 at the end of the third quarter, Nick Nurse did roll the dice a little bit, opening the fourth quarter with Maxey off the court and trusting Quentin Grimes and VJ Edgecombe to lead the charge for a few minutes while No. 0 rested.

This space will be dedicated to those two, who stepped up with elite shooting to support Maxey all night long. They combined for nine made threes, supplying the juice that allowed Maxey to get some more time off his feet in the game. Grimes deserves a special shoutout, providing secondary playmaking to the tune of seven assists in addition to the scoring.

At his best, Grimes has bursts of brilliance when he slows down a bit. For example, instead of rushing a possession early in the fourth quarter, he waited patiently to find Dominick Barlow back-cutting for a dunk.

As for Edgecombe, his three-point shooting put the Timberwolves to sleep. He saved some of the possessions that came down to the end of the shot clock with no Maxey life-preserver available, Edgecombe lacing a pull-up three off a ball screen in the third quarter and chucking up a prayer to beat the shot clock in the fourth quarter.

A side note—The Sixers shot 21-for-37 from three. That is nothing more than an unsustainable heater. It happens once in a while. But you see how much easier you can make life when the threes actually punish defensive rotations. If only the shooting was more a characteristic and less an abberation.