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Early fourth-quarter minutes doom Sixers in loss to Suns: Likes and dislikes

Early fourth-quarter minutes doom Sixers in loss to Suns: Likes and dislikes

Tyrese Maxey knocks down difficult jumper over Devin Booker in Sixers-Suns game

The Sixers (49-24) visited the Phoenix Suns (38-35) on Saturday night. Both teams wanted to salvage the second night of their respective back-to-backs after they both lost on Friday. Tyrese Maxey’s big night wasn’t enough as the Sixers drew dead in the second half, losing 125-105.

Before we get to the action, some context.

Contextual Notes

The Sixers were without the services of James Harden, who missed his third game in a row with a sore left achilles.

Danuel House Jr. has a sore right shoulder and was out.

Louis King and Mac McClung are on Two-Way G-League assignments with the Delaware Blue Coats and were unavailable.

Doc Rivers started Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, Tobias Harris, PJ Tucker, and Joel Embiid.

The Suns were without the services of Kevin Durant, who has a sprained left ankle.

Deandre Ayton missed the game with a right hip contusion.

Monty Williams started Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Josh Okogie, Torrey Craig, and Bismack Biyombo.

Likes

Friday’s loss to the Warriors in the Bay Area was an opportunity to highlight some underrated skills various Sixers offer but don’t often showcase due to role limitations. One of the few early positives for Philadelphia on Saturday was Georges Niang throwing his hat in the ring for underrated skills. Perhaps you don’t expect him to make defenses collapse when he drives because there isn’t a ton of foot speed or lateral athleticism to threaten the interior. But, Niang is sneakily an aware playmaker off the bounce. Every once in a while, he will leverage a rim-protector’s positioning by making him commit to confront the ball. It is at that moment that Niang will thread a pocket pass to Embiid or another lurking teammate, using his drive to set them up for an uncontested finish.

I do think it’s valuable to have some secondary playmaking eyes reserved on your bench come playoff time. If nothing else, it’s just not something that opposing defenses will expect out of a backup forward. But, given that his minutes will probably be cut a bit as the Sixers move further into the postseason, his role is going to be hoisting threes as often as he can. Jury’s out on whether it translates to bigger stages.

The only other good in this game was Maxey, who was unconscious from start to finish. He nailed down seven triples, lacing them off the catch from all over the floor throughout the night. He…

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