Sixers Continue to Show Good Signs in Win Over Suns

Joel Embiid extended his streak of games with at least 25 points to 10. Tyrese Maxey flirted with a triple-double. The Sixers won their third of four games on this west coast trip, splitting the season series against the Phoenix Suns.

Here's what happened.

The stagger works

Imagine a world where Nick Nurse consistently staggers Embiid and Maxey. Now imagine a world where it works. While the Suns shot themselves in the foot, literally, with miss after miss from deep in the first half, the Sixers did a very good of holding court on the defensive glass. There was a point in the middle of the first half in which Phoenix was shooting below 30 percent form the field and only had five offensive rebounds.

The Sixers, to be clear, did not play anything near perfect defense. But they got some opponent shooting luck and forced Phoenix to essentially execute to perfection on one half of the court to keep themselves within shouting distance.

The Sixers began to make strides in this game as soon as the second quarter began, and Adem Bona was front and center for the run. He pulled down two of the most physical, difficult defensive rebounds of his career and recorded an offensive rebound on his own miss that he then put back for a layup to send the Suns into a timeout.

Philadelphia outscored Phoenix by 12 in Bona's minutes in the first half, and he played as if he carried that impact.

The other pillar of Philadelphia's success with staggering the two stars was Maxey. He's at his best when he's not marrying himself to any one type of shot, instead mixing in all of which he's capable. He used his floater and got all the way to the rim. But, more importantly, he didn't let three-point volume dictate his diet of jumpers. Maxey took 10 threes in the game and 11 twos. That even distribution allowed the Sixers to stomp the Suns in the minutes Embiid sat.

Maxey didn't have it going from deep. On some nights, that would cause him to rely entirely on drives into bigs or multiple defenders in the paint. The story was different on Saturday. He got to the mid-range all night long, torturing like-sized defenders out of the post and getting to the baseline pull-up when he could.

Philadelphia lost Embiid's minutes by 10 points, but they won the Maxey-only minutes by 16 points.

Everybody runs

Embiid is often labeled as a slow-pace player. When the ball gets to him in the halfcourt, he oftn does slow the possession down or stop the ball. But allowing him to bring the ball up the court isn't such a bad thing for pace. He takes to a quicker style when he's preying on a backpedaling defender and often uses the second side of the court when teams send the helper. It's also more difficult to slow the pace when you're pushing for an advantage. He played quicker early in this game when the ball was in his hands in transition and the Sixers got higher-quality shots as a result.

But Embiid wasn't the only guy who dialed up the pace when the ball was in his hands. Trendon Watford had an excellent game by just navigating space quickly when the ball was in his hands. He has a knack for driving hard and sneaking layups and floaters past the big, often getting knocked to the floor for the foul. Watford also had five defensive rebounds in this game, meaning he had opportunities to get the ball off the miss and catalyze the offense without having to make an outlet pass to a ball-handler.

Aggressors

The Sixers have hit a new gear with their physicality and toughness on this road trip. In all three wins, they've responded to contact. That doesn't mean just hitting harder as the game allows. It means not shying away from contact when defending the paint. They foul a lot. That is more acceptable than just allowing ball-handlers to coast by you for layups or being out of position on dump-off passes. The rim is a precious currency in this game. You will win when you don't back down at the hoop.

It goes both ways, too. Dominick Barlow is an excellent example of that. He destroyed the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors with both his offensive rebounding and his finishing at the hoop. But most demoralizing of all, he didn't let contact at the basket bother him. He finished through fouls. That's huge.

The rebounding has been another storyline of this road trip, and that continued in this game. Philadelphia won the glass by 12. Phoenix had just 12 offensive rebounds in a game they shot below 40 percent from the field. They also won the glass, overall, and limited the opposition on the offensive glass in the wins over the Clippers and Warriors. In the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers? They were outrebounded by 14 and allowed 10 offensive rebounds while the Lakers shot nearly 56 percent from the floor.

The Suns are a unique test. They don't have the most talent, but they are extremely physical and maximize their effort. The Sixers did not rest on their talent. They weren't above scratching and clawing. They played the Suns' style and beat them at it.

Spare thoughts

This was a really mature win for the Sixers. The Suns are a respectable team. But they are built on being agitators. Dillon Brooks led the effort to get under the Sixers' skin. The officials might as well have worn Suns uniforms. The Sixers stayed focused until the clock stopped.

Kelly Oubre Jr. fouled Devin Booker twice on threes in the final minute of regulation. That should be 25 pushups for each foul.

Let's review the shenanigans by the judges. VJ Edgecombe got clocked in the face by a Royce O'Neale shoulder that had some heat behind it and it was not even reviewed for the possibility of a flagrant. They assessed offsetting technical fouls to Embiid and Booker for some mild jawing at the end of the first half. Lame. Let the players have their words. Collin Gillespie was blatantly moving his leg as he tried to stand in for a charge. The officials explained why it was a charge as the broadcast replayed the moment showing that it was, indeed, a blocking foul. My personal favorite was waving off a Trendon Watford three on the basis that it did not beat the shot clock when the ball was clearly off his fingers by expiration of the clock.