Six Thoughts From Sixers' Play-In Victory Over Magic

Tyrese Maxey scored 11 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter to power the Sixers past the Orlando Magic and set up another chapter between Philadelphia and the Boston Celtics in the playoffs.

Here are six thoughts on the Play-In victory.

The Sixers contained the ball by pinching early

The biggest fascination of this matchup, at least to this writer, was whether Nick Nurse would marry his team to their season-long principle of over-helping on drives at the expense of open 3s. The reason that is self-defeating, even against a team that struggles to shoot, like the Magic do, is that the two fulcrums of the offense—Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner—are extremely inefficient scorers in one-on-one situations. So, in not showing aggressively on drives, you are baiting the Magic offense into being perhaps the most inefficient version of itself.

To Nurse's credit, the team leaned toward no help, at least relative to their usual tactic. It wasn't a complete "guard your yard" situation, though. But the Sixers showed help earlier on touches with the off-ball defender on the wings. It stunted drives just long enough to keep the primary defender in the picture while also not giving up the shorter-distance 3s.

As a result, the Sixers were able to live in both worlds, enticing Wagner and Banchero into a heavy dose of isolation offense while also making rotations all over the court to get stops on swing passes.

A mixed bag of situational awareness

The main stakeholders of the Sixers' offense had a very helter-skelter game. Both Maxey and Paul George spent stretches of this game playing to the contact, daring Tony Brothers' crew to not reward their star résumés. But if you're relying on consistency from a Tony Brothers-led officiating crew, you're approaching the game poorly. There were several possessions of either guy attacking defenders head on and having no plan, chucking junk at the rim and waving their arms in frustration at the lack of calls.

Maxey, in particular, was up and down in the first half. There were a number of touches that worked down the shot clock before settling for a fading mid-range jumper, and some of those came out of the post.

The jarring part of Maxey's approach was that he was a hunter in transition and far too methodical in the halfcourt. Even when he drew a favorable matchup out to the perimeter, he wasn't quick with his decisions.

Andre Drummond, ready for the moment

Speaking of ups and downs, it was rather stunning that Nurse rolled with Adem Bona as the starting big. It felt like the wrong combination of size, moment and experience for a young big. But, not to worry. A part of the trade to the Brooklyn Nets back when the Sixers acquired James Harden, Drummond has waited five full seasons for his opportunity to experience a postseason game in Philadelphia. He was ready when Nurse called upon him to relieve Bona.

The Sixers got an extremely focused Drummond, one who was opportunistic rather than adventurous with his shot selection. None of the crazy post moves with time on the clock. No alligator-armed floaters. He played on a diet of put-backs and duck-ins, spacing out to the corners as the final destination in a line of swing passes but not an early-clock shooter.

Drummond floated into space to help his teammates, serving as a short-roll set-up man for a Dominick Barlow score and a release valve man who saw VJ Edgecombe cutting backdoor for a crucial score late in the game.

He's long prided himself as being a historically good rebounder. But being the big body to pull down the rebound is one facet of the rebounding game. He drew fouls on the Magic just by being too big for them to handle.

But it was the defensive side of the ball that made this perhaps Drummond's best game of the season. His hands and timing were excellent, reaching in on a Banchero drive to jar the ball loose and flashing to spots around the rim for timely swats.

Drummond was relentless, emerging as the higher jumper to blow up a lob in the first half and tipping a loose ball stripped away on a drive to a teammate. Drummond even deflected a pass hedging on a screen early in the fourth quarter, creating a transition opportunity for the Sixers.

Maxey delivers

One of the luxuries of being a star is that you can wear the blame one minute and wear the cape the next. Even with an uneven first half of play, Maxey had plenty of opportunity to rewrite the story. And just when it looked like the Sixers might run the miserable Magic out of Philadelphia in the third quarter, Dominick Barlow helped keep Orlando in the game.

Barlow checked in with with three minutes and 52 seconds left in the third, the Sixers up nine. A 10-5 Orlando run ensued over the next roughly three minutes and 15 seconds. Much of it came directly off rough Barlow moments. It had the potential to be a game-changing sequence and it set up a high-stakes fourth quarter.

But Maxey had promises to keep, and he made sure to go down swinging. His feel for the ball on jumpers has been off at times since suffering his pinky injury, so Maxey went with the sure thing: His driving game. Aside from burying one step-back 3 to punish a slight drop coverage, Maxey attacked downhill all fourth quarter. He got to his floater over and over again, dropping the ball softly into the net over outstretched arms for scores to keep the Magic at bay.

When it mattered most, his shot selection left nothing to be desired. He took hit after hit and kept driving until the game was decided.

Where is the offensive structure?

If this game was going to come apart for Philadelphia, it was going to be their own doing. One of the worst possessions of the game occurred on the final shot of the third quarter. Maxey dribbled for 18 seconds with no action to trigger, resulting in a difficult jumper that clanked off the rim as time expired. A brutal waste, all because the thought process was one-on-one play over any structure.

It's not even the complete lack of direction beyond getting the ball to the two best players and getting out of the way. It's the time and place of certain shots. I understand wanting to be aggressive early against a physical, big team as they try to get back on defense. But once that opportunity has passed, don't rush bad shots. Early-clock 3s, isolations that result in maybe one swing pass, off-balance junk just to beat the shot clock. What do you spend your practice time doing?

The dumbest rule in the NBA

Drummond was recently whistled for a technical foul because he made gun motions with his fingers to celebrate a 3-point make. Desmond Bane did the same thing after his own 3-pointer, except he directed it at his own bench. No technical foul. How about this: These are adults, no one is being harmed by this celebration. There are bigger fish to fry than whether or not the finger guns are being pointed at one's own team.

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