The Philadelphia 76ers used a dominant 30-17 fourth quarter to pull away for a 121-114 win over the visiting Dallas Mavericks, who had won six of their previous eight games...
The Philadelphia 76ers used a dominant 30-17 fourth quarter to pull away for a 121-114 win over the visiting Dallas Mavericks, who had won six of their previous eight games prior to coming to the Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The Sixers were once again led by the Tyrese Maxey (38 points, 4 assists) and VJ Edgecombe (26 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), but were aided by 21 points from Dominick Barlow, who tied his previous career high.
With the win, which is the Sixers’ sixth win in their last eight games, the Sixers have now improved to 16-11 on the season.
Here’s what I saw.
Dominick Barlow’s career night attacking the rim
Two-way forward Dominick Barlow has been a revelation in the early going, having been in the starting lineup in 14 of the 17 games he’s played so far this season.
But Barlow’s utility has largely come either on the glass, where he’s been one of the Sixers’ more active rebounders on both ends of the floor, and on defense, where has mobility, length and versatility has really helped plug the holes on a Sixers team that has been rising up the defensive leaderboards over the last month.
For context, heading into the game the Sixers gave up 3.4 fewer points per 100 possessions with Barlow on the court than when he’s been on the bench, and the Sixers have collected 72.1% of their defensive rebounding opportunities with him on the floor, compared to just 68.8% when he’s on the bench.
But the offense for Barlow, whose 15.3 points points per 100 possessions ranks just 13th on the squad, is usually an afterthought.
Not tonight.
Barlow came out and attacked the Mavs off the dribble at seemingly every opportunity. He was aggressive taking Klay Thompson off the dribble when he had the chance, which certainly helped. But for the most part Dallas has enough size, athleticism, and weakside help that they should be able to limit a non-shooter like Barlow. Instead, the Mavs out of control time and time again when they closed out on the perimeter, and once Barlow got in a rhythm he used that tendency to create plenty of opportunities for himself at the rim.
When all was said and done, Barlow finished with 21 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals, which is (by far) the most he’s scored in a Sixers’ uniform (his previous high was the 13 he scored on opening night), and tied his overall career high, which was set back when he played for the Spurs in the 2022-23 season.
Barlow’s explosion was big for a number of reasons. First, with Joel Embiid, Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr out of the lineup, they needed production from unlikely places. But Barlow being so much of an offensive threat tonight made it easy for head coach Nick Nurse to keep him on the floor as much as possible. With how much size Dallas has on the wings, that allowed his defense to really shine.
VJ Max sets the standard again
Through most of this season, we have been remarking how consistent VJ Edgecombe’s shooting, one of his question marks coming into the draft, has been. Heading into the game Edgecombe was shooting 39.3% from 3-point range.
But most of that damage has come shooting off the catch. In fact, through December 13th, Edgecombe was shooting just 6-25 on 3-point shots off the dribble, and just 19-69 on dribble jumpers overall. It’s been a real weakness in his game during the early parts of his NBA career.
But that has started to turn around over the last few games. He hit a pull-up 3 against the Knicks, and hit a two tonight against the Mavs, including a tough, heavily-contested three off a screen in the first quarter that resulted in a four point play.
Obviously, nobody is expecting Edgecombe to turn into Tyrese Maxey overnight, but the fact that he even was looking for that three coming off the screen is indicative of all the work that he’s been putting into the shot, and how much confidence he’s gained as a result. As I mentioned in the recap last night, for as good as VJ Edgecombe is right now, he does so many things that you look at and are tantalized over what this Edgecombe/Maxey pairing could do in a few year’s time.
That dual timeline — Edgecombe being a significantly positive contributor now, and seemingly just scratching the surface of his potential — is such a luxury for a team like the Sixers. Yes, Maxey is playing at an All-NBA level and you want to do everything you can to give him a chance to compete right now. But he’s also just 25, and there’s enough runway for the Sixers’ backcourt of the future to grow and develop alongside of each other.
Edgecombe was terrific yet again in this one, finishing with 26 points on 10-21 shooting, along with six rebounds and four assists. He’s now averaging 24.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists over his last four games, a level of consistency, and two-way impact, that arguably exceed his thrilling start to the season.
I’m adding Tyrese Maxey into this section as well, as he finished with a game-high 38 points on 15-31 shooting. He drilled corner 3s in transition, hit the long pull-up bombs that we’ve become accustomed to, and used his speed to get all the way to the cup against a tough interior defense. I’m yada-yadaing his performance again, and I feel guilty about it, but it shows how ridiculously much he’s improved given he can drop 38 and we’re just now kinda used to it.
Switch-up for the centers
For much of the first 26 games of the season, young big man Adem Bona has been disappointing. Meanwhile, Andre Drummond, who was borderline unplayable last year, has been a revelation. With the toe injury gone, with him clearly getting in better shape in the offseason, and with Bona’s disappointment, Drummond has seized that backup center spot.
That dynamic was inverted tonight, with Bona’s activity and athleticism giving the Sixers a lift against a Dallas squad with good positional size and athleticism, but without much of a threat to pull-up off the dribble. Bona was able to rotate over and alter shots that Drummod just couldn’t get to, and Dallas didn’t have the electric guards to make him pay for his miscues.
Bona wasn’t perfect. He still missed some passes that he should have come down with, and while the six offensive rebounds helped the Sixers gain second chance points, his defensive rebounding continues to be a problem. Still, he altered shots, matched Dallas’ athleticism and gave the Sixers a vertical presence as a lob threat, even if he didn’t necessarily convert all the opportunities.
As great as Drummond has been, the Sixers could really use Bona to start playing better. That’s true not only because Joel Embiid will obviously continue to miss games here and there, making the Sixers’ third string center more important than most team’s. But they also really need a long-term backup center to emerge, and at 32 and on the final year of his contract, that’s unlikely to be Drummond.
Category: General Sports
