The Sixers’ next one counts.
The team wrapped up its preseason Friday night by coming back from a 17-point deficit for a 120-106 win over the Hawks at Wells Fargo Center, ending the exhibition season at 2-2.
De'Anthony Melton scored 29 points on 11-for-16 shooting. Playing his first and only game of this preseason, Joel Embiid added 21 points.
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James Harden missed all four Sixers preseason games. Still a Sixer despite his trade request, Harden is away from the team due to a personal matter, a Sixers official said Thursday.
Terquavion Smith and Filip Petrušev were out with minor injuries, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame. The team was otherwise at full strength.
The Sixers’ regular-season opener will be next Thursday night in Milwaukee against the Bucks. Here are observations on their preseason finale:
Embiid gets one under his belt
NBA
Unsurprisingly, the Sixers’ offense didn’t start in first gear.
The team generated plenty of decent looks, including a Tyrese Maxey floater off of an opening-play dribble handoff, but began 1 for 6 from the floor. Embiid fell to 0 for 6 when he failed to convert a couple of close-range tries late in the second quarter.
On a positive note, Embiid made an impressive pass early when he posted up, drew help and then tossed a high-velocity dish to Tobias Harris in the opposite corner. Harris didn’t hit his jumper, but Embiid’s read and delivery were both sharp. In Embiid’s first year under Nurse, processing the action around him, anticipating openings and setting teammates up for open jumpers will all be key.
“I’ve always wanted to play that way," Embiid said of Nurse's offense. “I’ve never liked just being an iso player. I don’t think that’s the right way to play and I don’t think that’s the right way to win. So I like the system.
“Today there were a couple of passes where guys weren’t expecting it, and I was telling them, ‘When you cut, you’ve got to cut hard. You’ve got to cut to mean it and be ready to receive the ball.’ ... I just want to come in and look for those guys, and just play as a team and keep moving the ball. Hopefully, that helps us win.”
The Sixers’ starters played aggressive defense in front of Embiid. Maxey picked up two steals in quick succession during a frenetic, hustling stretch. The Sixers have made mistakes and shown expected growing pains defensively, but guards like Maxey and Melton have done encouraging work flying into passing lanes and generally sniffing out potential turnovers.
Melton’s also been productive finishing off fast breaks, which was a notable weakness at times last season. The 25-year-old combo guard caught fire from three-point range in the third quarter and was excellent overall for a second consecutive game.
Maxey’s playmaking was a highlight Friday, too. He racked up 12 assists — pocket passes, lobs, drive-and-kicks — and looked more comfortable alongside Embiid as the game wore on.
“Well, if he wants to lead the league in assists, he can," Embiid said with a smile. “But that was great to see. I just wanted to get everybody going and work on that two-man game, the timing of everything. I thought tonight we did a pretty fine job. I thought every single time we didn’t have anything, the ball wasn’t sticking."
Embiid played the entire first quarter, though he certainly didn’t look fresh when the period ended, walking slowly to the sidelines with his hands on his hips. He went 33 minutes on the night.
While preseason results mean next to nothing — the Sixers lost their first three regular-season games last year after a 4-0 preseason — the team will hope Embiid shakes off rust and ramps up substantially in the final stretch before their opener.
“Just practice, try to simulate as much as I can with game-play situations," Embiid said. “Just keep playing and working, like I’ve been doing the whole time. There’s nothing like the game, but just got to try to do our best and try to get better.”
Springer further strengths his case
Jaden Springer was perhaps the Sixers’ best story of the preseason.
Just like in the team’s exhibition opener, Springer immediately jumped out Friday night. Seconds after entering the game early in the second quarter, Springer made a patient drive toward the middle, Danuel House Jr. cut along the baseline, and the 21-year-old found him for a layup.
Springer also took little time to notch a steal and sink two three-pointers. Remarkably, Springer ended the preseason 7 for 8 from three-point range. Especially given his defensive skills and ever-growing confidence reading the game and making good, instinctive decisions on both ends of the floor, he’s looked worthy of NBA rotation minutes.
Where exactly might those minutes be? With Nurse always seeking variety and versatility, there’s surely quite a few lineups where Springer would make sense. One example: He played in the the third quarter alongside Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr., Harris and Embiid, and that unit felt reasonably balanced. Though he appears most well-suited to pressuring guards, Springer doesn’t tend to seem overmatched against larger wings. His much-improved outside shooting is also a serious boost when considering where he might fit for the Sixers.
“He’s just made the right play," Nurse said. “It seems like he’s stepped into the shot when he’s supposed to, he’s passed when he’s supposed to. He’s guarded hard the whole time he’s been out there. He’s played very well in all the games, so he’s done a good job.”
The bottom line is that it’s currently hard to make a compelling case for Springer being fully excluded from the Sixers’ regular-season rotation.
“He’s been huge," Maxey said. “I remember the first game we got out there, and it was me and him at the guard positions. It was Jaylen Brown left to guard and somebody else. He was like, ‘Who do you want me to guard?’ I said, ‘What do you mean? I’ve seen you play defense.’
“What he brings on the defensive end is special, and now he’s finally starting to shoot those open threes that I’ve been asking him to shoot. He’s been great.”
Final auditions
Before the game, Nurse named Furkan Korkmaz and House as players he wanted to watch. Korkmaz hadn’t played in the preseason until Friday, while House was sidelined for the past two contests because of left knee soreness.
Neither player seems likely to surge up the Sixers’ pecking order in the near future, although each had a couple of nice fourth-quarter moments. Korkmaz posted eight points on 3-for-6 shooting, two rebounds and two assists. House recorded two points on 1-for-3 shooting and three assists.
“He’s got a little bit of playmaking ability," Nurse said of Korkmaz. “He can pump fake, get in the lane, pass it a little bit. He found some guys ... cutting to the rim and he found some guys out for threes. I think, for his first game, he played very confidently. I thought he played assertively and he looked good.”
For the time being, Nurse has a better feel for Oubre, and he's liked much of what he’s seen. He knows Danny Green very well from their championship-winning days on the Raptors and understands the value of Green's shooting next to attention-drawing stars like Embiid.
Petrušev's absence didn't lead to an opportunity for Mo Bamba, who was a DNP. Paul Reed looks set to be Embiid's primary backup and to play some power forward minutes, as he did late in Friday's third quarter. PJ Tucker remains a small-ball center option. After that, it's not yet clear what the Sixers' big man depth chart will be to start the regular season.
The team's back-of-roster picture will be determined in the coming days. The Sixers announced late Friday night that they waived Ricky Council IV, a rookie guard who was on a two-way contract, and David Duke Jr., who'd signed an Exhibit 10 deal.
