Instant observations: Sixers’ ‘Big 3’ dominates young Wizards

Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George all turned in stellar performances to help the Sixers coast to a 131-110 victory over the Washington Wizards, washing off some of the stink from their previous outing. The 76ers moved to 20-15 on the year as all five starters scored in double figures for Philadelphia.

Here’s what I saw.

A big evening for the big three

When the Sixers signed Paul George last summer, games like Wednesday night’s matchup with the Wizards had to be part of the vision. Philadelphia’s role players mostly stunk, the bench was comically outplayed by a shorthanded Washington team, and it simply didn’t matter. The intended “big three” just out-talented the other guys in red, white, and blue to drag Philly to a win that should have been quite a bit easier. In a game they led by six points at halftime, the Embiid/PG/Maxey trio was a combined +56. That’s pretty good!

It was Maxey who played the star of the show to start this one, absolutely torching the Wizards from beyond the arc early on. With Washington offering help to Alex Sarr and Marvin Bagley III as they guarded Embiid in the middle of the floor, Maxey’s blurry movement posed problems for the young Wizards, and that’s if they were able to get back and play half-court defense in the first place. The Sixers had eight first-half steals, with VJ Edgecombe (3) leading the way in that department, and Maxey was able to can a transition three to get the momentum rolling while never looking back.

Maxey’s improvement has been a joy to watch in the skill department, and I would argue his attitude has shifted along with it. When Bub Carrington took an exaggerated tumble and drew a foul on Maxey in the second quarter, Maxey came and snarled at Carrington with real venom, disgusted that the hard work he was doing on defense was being responded to with poor theatrics. Bottling that rage up, Maxey showed a continued focus on that end of the floor, turning stops and turnovers into vicious attacks at the rim on the other end. But his hardest work was basically done by halftime, for once.

As has been the case for most of this season, when Maxey hit the bench, things fell apart. The only saving grace was when George joined a group of young guards and bench players, offering them a release valve when they desparately needed it. His propensity to take contested jumpers is a bother when he’s having an off night, but he lives in those moments to the point that the defense essentially doesn’t matter. With the bench groups, George offered some excellent shotmaking from the mid-post, backing down Wizards wings who got schooled by the old master. Once Maxey and Embiid re-entered the game, it was back to situational attacking and spot-up marksmanship, and he delivered in a big way, pouring in 18 first-half points to trail only Maxey.

(George also managed to create some real physical leverage against the young and developing Wiz, even if George isn’t someone you look at as a bowling ball post player. He earned the Sixers some cheap ones at the free-throw line by attacking size mismatches, a nice luxury to fall back on when the normal offense isn’t working.)

It is only because Maxey was so good and George was so hot early that Embiid’s excellent game fell slightly down the pecking order. Perhaps wanting to get a bit of revenge after Alex Sarr put some highlights on his head early this season, Embiid came out and got to work almost immediately, dropping a midrange jumper on his first touch of the game. He is creating separation with far more ease than at the start of the season, and particularly compared to last year, when opposing bigs bothered or even blocked his once unguardable midrange jumper. The emergence of his slashing ability has helped a lot there — with the threat of putting it on the deck and scoring at the rim alive once again, it has been harder to sell out against the big man’s shots from around the elbows.

Though Embiid isn’t always being rewarded with gaudy assist numbers, you can see the impact his presence and passing are having on the offense. The Sixers had a beautiful offensive sequence in the first half, with an Embiid mid-post touch fired to a cutting Jabari Walker, who hit VJ Edgecombe in the corner for a quick swing to Paul George, who calmly deposited a three from the right wing. Philadelphia’s offense has had far more of these fast-moving sequences in recent weeks, with the big man blending into the unit more and more as the season wears on.

And as the Sixers made their big push in the second half, it was ultimately Embiid’s dominance from the free-throw line and in that put the Wizards away. Sarr had nothing for him, with Embiid hitting hook shots, drop steps, and big dawging his way all the way to the rim with ease. An outstanding night for all three of the vet stars!

The other two starters

— I am genuinely starting to feel like the Sixers drafted the spiritual successor to Jimmy Butler. Let’s consider a few things about VJ Edgecombe:

• He plays both sides of the ball
• He’s much better in crunch time and second halves
• He makes funny faces at the officials and his teammates
• He loves midrange jumpers from around the same spots as Butler
• He has a reputation as a maniacal worker and competitor (thankfully, without the “grating personality” quirks Jimbo has been dinged for)

This was not Edgecombe’s finest game by any stretch of the imagination, but he left a big imprint on it anyway. Long before the shot came along, he was bullying the Wizards on the defensive end, ripping possession after possession out of their hands to kickstart Philly’s transition game. The only shame was that he missed a few different opportunities to finish poster dunks. I’m not sure I’ve seen someone come this close to an all-time highlight three times in the same game without actually creating one, at least not since Blake Griffin was flying through the air with the Lob City Clippers.

Edgecombe struggled to put it in the basket for most of the first 2.5 quarters, getting through the initial defensive pressure before running into well-timed Washington help at the rim. And outside of a single three in the second half, the long ball was absent. But he slowly chipped away as the lead ballooned, hitting a couple of nice midrange jumpers over fellow draftee Tre Johnson. With Maxey and Embiid watching from the sideline, it was Edgecombe who helped put this game away, buying their top stars some well-earned rest.

(Well, he bought rest for Embiid, I guess. Nick Nurse decided to bring Maxey back in the game up 17 with five minutes left, which is certainly a choice you could make.)

It was good to see Kelly Oubre back on the floor again, even if he was fairly limited in his return to the floor. I think his biggest contribution to the team may have been re-lighting the fire under Dominick Barlow, who had an excellent “little things” game at the power forward spot.

That’s not to say Barlow has dropped his effort in recent weeks, but I think you could tell he’s feeling a bit of pressure to keep his role as the Sixers get reinforcements in the lineup, and he played with a level of urgency indicative of that. Barlow was a menace on the offensive glass, even creating extra possessions on plays where he didn’t secure the rebound by forcing Washington bigs to stretch for the ball and knock it out of bounds. The Sixers were also able to take advantage of Barlow’s on-ball abilities a few times, throwing the ball ahead in transition and allowing him to use two power dribbles to get a close look at the rim.

Other notes

— Jared McCain does not have anywhere near the same confidence as he did a year ago. Understandable as it may be, there’s not really a path back to “good Jared” if he doesn’t discover his shooting boots and find the courage to shoot semi-contested jumpers. He has been able to get away with being a plus-minus darling while stinking it up on offense, but that has hardly felt earned, and he feels close to losing his rotation spot entirely.

His only saving grace in this game is that their other bench players were no better. Quentin Grimes was an absolute trainwreck, missing wide-open layups at the rim and committing some heinous fouls on the other end. Adem Bona didn’t register a start in over eight minutes of first-half action, drawing a belly laugh out of me when he had a defensive rebound opportunity and basically volleyball swatted it from the paint to Washington’s bench. But I’m much more concerned about McCain’s complete lack of offensive production than anything happening with those other guys. They’re getting the worst of all worlds on offense, misses on wide-open shots that turn into record-scratch moments on future possessions.

When the Sixers removed McCain and Bona from the rotation in the second half, they were able to easily pull away from the lowly Wizards. Almost anything should be on the table to help him find his confidence, whether it’s a trip to Delaware or a stretch of DNPs to watch things unfold from the sideline.

— Good second half for Andre Drummond.