Six Thoughts: Sixers Stunned by Undermanned Nuggets in Return Home

Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe spear-headed a hard-fought overtime battle against the Denver Nuggets as the Sixers returned to Philadelphia on Monday. But it was Embiid, Maxey and Nick Nurse who disappointed late as the Sixers were stunned by the severely under-manned Nuggets.

Here are six thoughts on the game.

Embiid senses lethargy and asserts himself early

Maxey and VJ Edgecombe both landing way off target on a couple of threes and a pair of sloppy turnovers of his own right were enough to wake Embiid up early in this game. He sensed the lethargy, perhaps some letdown energy after the majority of Denver's rotation had been ruled out for the game, and immediately diagnosed the problem in the first quarter.

Embiid has done a ton of scoring over the last handful of games, but he's also left some scoring aggression on the table so that his teammates can be more involved off the attention he garners. Embiid could tell early on that he had to apply the pressure and he picked it up just a few possessions into the game, declining an outlet pass to a guard and instead bringing the ball up the court himself to ensure that he could control where it went.

After a really slow start for Philadelphia, Embiid used his size inside, refusing to let Denver survive in a night-long mismatch in the paint. Once Embiid used some brute force inside to beat the Nuggets' efforts to front him in the post, Denver started shading aggressively when he caught the ball near the paint. It didn't matter. Embiid shot over it or out-muscled the smaller Nuggets to the rim for some scores through fouls.

He wasn't the only one to benefit from some overzealous Denver defense. By nature of having to rotate to the open man off of Embiid's passing, there were uncontrolled contests to cover up those holes. And because Embiid could see over all the layers of pressure, he was able to find teammates for scores through fouls, as well. Dominick Barlow got the hoop and the harm just by cutting into Embiid's line of sight as the double-team approached because the helper booked to the basket to try to get to Barlow (to no avail).

Embiid would've been well on his way to a triple-double by halftime had his teammates cashed in on the looks his gravity and passing created, but not the best half of shooting from the home team.

Paul George scales up the pecking order at the right time

Even after a sleepy first quarter, the Sixers opened the second quarter with a three-point deficit. Totally manageable, but also a little dangerous given that the opening lineup did not include Embiid or Maxey.

Once it became clear that Edgecombe was struggling with Denver's physicality on drives, George promptly scaled up on offense. It wasn't the flashiest display, but it didn't need to be. He just needed to keep the motor going until the Sixers got to the gas station. He supplied a pair of three-point makes to keep the Sixers' blood flowing. But as we've come to appreciate in the season-and-a-half he's been here, there is value in the little things George is and is not doing.

He did not try to commandeer the offense at the expense of good shots. He also builds up the young players around him. You can see the personal equity between George and his teammates growing, like when George hit Adem Bona on a high-low pass for a score through a foul. The two pointed at each other and shared a chest bump before Bona stepped to the foul line.

Did George need to scale up in those minutes? Not necessarily. Not like Denver was threatening to run away with this game. But it was good to see George finally do it.

Helping off Jalen Pickett

Whether this game remained close or not, someone was going to go off for the Nuggets, and that someone was Pickett. Philadelphia did not make it all that challenging for the Denver guard, consistently helping off him to get a body somewhere closer to the action. Maxey was one of the biggest offenders.

As much as Maxey's defense carries him into a class of nearly his own in the field of elite NBA guards, there is a price to be paid for his knack for shooting the gap in pursuit of steals. It's not always on passes. Sometimes Maxey gambles on a nearby ball-handler who has turned his back entirely to Maxey's man. When it works, it's exciting and it's an easy basket for the Sixers. But it didn't always work on Monday, and Pickett was there to punish the gambles.

The domino effect of one guy's shotmaking is it inspires a depleted team to stay in a game instead of checking out and getting run out of the gym. If they hang around long enough, they may not be the ones to blink first.

Edgecombe dazzles in the second half

After soaring on the road trip, the Nuggets held Edgecombe to a low profile in the first half. As mentioned above, he struggled with contact on drives early on. But, like the poised veteran with the birth certificate of a rookie that he is, Edgecombe saved his best for last, knocking down a barrage of threes in the second half to keep the Sixers afloat as the momentum tilted toward Denver.

Even with the game getting away from the Sixers late, it was Edgecombe who answered the call in clutch time, drilling a pair of pull-up threes to bring Philadelphia back to life. His last score of the game saw perhaps his freshest legs, Edgecombe knifing into the paint to receive a pass from George for a thunderous dunk in overtime.

His defense was as crucial as his offense was, though. Edgecombe stood up Denver ball-handlers over and over again in crunch time, even flat-out ripping the ball away from the Nuggets to force turnovers on a couple of possesssions.

He had the goods in overtime. It would have been a Sixers victory had his more seasoned teammates been up to it, too.

Embiid and Maxey disappoint down the stretch

You could see that Embiid was gassed down the stretch, his hands on his knees as he begged for air during dead balls. While the Nuggets were surely a size mismatch in his favor, I do wonder if the constant double-teams and battling for position against fronting and backing in the post wore him down as regulation transitioned to overtime. But he and Maxey did not have moments to remember with this game hanging in the balance.

We'll start with Maxey, who botched an isolation at the end of regulation that resulted in a low-quality shot before the Nuggets even had to contest it. We usually do not criticize single missed shots in this space, but Maxey got a beautiful look at a three in the final minute of overtime that would've put the game on ice. Those are opportunities you have to capitalize on as a superstar, and he clanked it. It also felt like he panicked a bit on the final possession when the play didn't unfold smoothly, and he opted for an off-balance floater with one second left when George was open for a layup in his line of sight.

Perhaps the greatest offense of all, though, was Maxey dedicating his last defensive effort to trying to strip Bruce Brown on a transition drive instead of just staying in front of him. When Maxey didn't jar the ball loose, it put Embiid in an unfavorable position to try to save the game at the rim.

As for Embiid, he made a terrible pass to George for a turnover late in overtime. And after all the physicality he played with in the first half, his approach changed in winning time. Only once between the fourth quarter and overtime crunch times did he apply his weight inside and back someone down for a layup. A six-turnover night for the big guy hurts quite a bit in a one-point loss.

Not Nurse's finest hour

A really rough game for the head coach. He left timeouts on the board at the end of regulation, and often watched idly for stretches in which the Sixers let Denver back into the game with long runs. He let George go cold on the bench for a long stretch of the fourth quarter. Nurse went with Bona in those minutes, later reasoning that he thought the big man could help on the offensive glass. The problem with that was that the offense ran through Embiid, so putting a non-spacer on the court with him was damaging.

You can put in a big effort to build equity on a long road trip, and then you can dash it away with one bad loss at home. Embiid, Maxey and Nurse will have to lick their wounds until the Washington Wizards come to town on Wednesday.