Instant observations: Sixers end road trip by quitting vs. Blazers

The Sixers played 24 solid minutes and then raised the white flag on Monday, losing 135-118 to the Blazers after losing the third quarter by a staggering 49-22 margin. Tyrese Maxey got his 30 points by sticking it out through enough garbage time to hit his number.

Here’s what I saw.

Cancel the third quarter

This is the sort of game where I would have been happy to completely throw efficiency out of the conversation for Tyrese Maxey. Down four of your six or most important players, Maxey was always going to see intense ball pressure and the full intensity of Portland on Monday. But he did not use their absences to check out of this one, starting this game off on the right foot to give the shorthanded Sixers a chance.

The common theme since 2026 started has been brutal outside shooting to go with beautiful inside-the-arc play, and that persisted against the Blazers. Though he was 0/5 from deep at halftime, Maxey was putting significant pressure on Portland by attacking the paint with gusto in both halfcourt and transition. Toumani Camara is an outstanding perimeter defender, but he was able to neutralize some of his man’s size and strength advantages with his first step, leaving Camara trailing and unable to catch up on quite a few trips to the basket. And Maxey did well to set Camara up as a cutter, too, feinting as if he was coming back for the basketball before exploding toward the basket and catching a pass that quickly turned into a layup.

Between his exploits at the end of the first and the success of an Edgecombe-led lineup to open the second, it looked like the Sixers could be on their way to an unexpectedly comfortable victory. And then it all fell apart in the third quarter, he wrote for perhaps the 45th time this season.

Watching the Blazers burn the nets down from three is annoying from a purely logical perspective, because they’re a high volume team that normally makes very few of their attempts, making up for that with a dogged approach on the offensive glass. When Donovan Clingan goes 3/3 from three in a half and Toumani Camara opens a game 5/6 from deep, you’re probably in the back just banging your head on the whiteboard as an NBA coach. Hard to account for that.

That being said, the Blazers give themselves chances to win the math battle by embracing the three-point shot to the degree that they do. Part of the reason the Sixers find themselves in a lot of close games is because they are trading threes for twos, with teams able to chip away at leads even if Philadelphia is cooking on offense. There are personnel-based reasons this is the case — are you going to stop Joel Embiid from taking midrange jumpers? — but they do need to find ways to manufacture more threes as a group. And while it’s easy to write off middling shooters during a hot start, there is a point in the game where you have to show proper respect to a guy with the hot hand. The Sixers have consistently failed in this respect all season, ignoring in-game heaters in favor of the initial scouting report. I am old enough to remember when other Sixers coaches were pummeled for this, by the way. This bit them again in Portland, with the Sixers content to let Camara brutalize them for most of four quarters.

Unsurprisingly, the Blazers also absolutely pasted the Sixers on the offensive glass, turning missed threes into second-chance opportunities over and over and over again. I don’t bring him up to blame him solely for their problems, but Andre Drummond is one of the least impactful high rebound players that I can remember watching. He will get you the cheap ones and the occasional out of area rebound, but as is customary, he gave a few “sure thing” boards right back to Portland, and it felt like the Sixers were punished on every single one of those.

The Sixers badly needed a tone-setter on either end of the floor, and as good as he was to start the game, Maxey was an absolute disaster to start the third quarter. He was sloppy with the basketball trying to get into the teeth of Portland’s defense, turning the ball over several times while growing more frustrated with the officials. Rather than trying to do something to turn the game on the other end, Maxey slowly complained his way out of action, barking at the zebras while the Blazers ran it down Philadelphia’s throat in transition to push the lead to 10, 20, 30 and beyond. I don’t blame him for being frustrated, certainly, but the team clearly followed his lead and packed it in, thinking ahead to the long flight back to Philadelphia.

Elsewhere, other guys just weren’t good enough. VJ Edgecombe was an absolute trainwreck on offense, struggling to make layups or threes when Maxey moved the ball away from pressure. This was a brutal end to the road trip for the rookie, who was in foul trouble for most of the Phoenix game. Kelly Oubre’s box score suggests a great two-way night and he got off to a good start, but he clearly let go of the rope after halftime and got run by far too often on defense.

I don’t blame these guys for a loss, but it was ugly, disspiriting loss, with a 49-22 third quarter the proverbial meat for this turd sandwich. This is 2.5 hours all of us will never get back, and I loathe that they essentially threw in the towel on this final game of the trip before the game even started.

A couple of highlights?

Trendon Watford’s season took a long time to get going, undercut by multiple injuries and false starts that didn’t allow him to establish a rhythm. But he has found himself and his place on this team in the wake of Paul George’s suspension, finally becoming the all-around threat they were hoping for when the Sixers brought him in last summer.

Starting at the power forward spot against Portland, the Sixers decided to lean on Watford’s mismatch-hunting ability in the post, throwing him the ball and letting him cook with the Blazers throwing their best defenders (Holiday and Camara) at the Maxey/Edgecombe backcourt. It was a needed source of offense with a huge chunk of the lineup out, and Watford showed off the old man game in the first half, opening the game 4/4 with a series of tough flip shots and some excellent footwork to wiggle free around the paint.

Marjon Beauchamp got his first opportunity to play for the Sixers since signing a two-way deal with Philadelphia, and I am only slightly exaggerating when I say I’ve seen enough to convert his contract before worrying about some of the horrid players the Sixers could sign on the buyout market. Give me another young wing athlete and make Nick Nurse coach him up over washed up guards and old guys with no upside.

Beauchamp’s first shift with the team produced zero points, including a miss on a lob attempt and a corner three that clanged off iron, but just about everything else was great. Despite a lack of time on the floor with these guys, he constantly found himself in the right places, including in the middle of their zone offense when the Blazers tried to junk up the game. He was constantly on the move and trying to make stuff happen, as he did on an offensive rebound that turned into a Tyrese Maxey floater for two extra points.

Good passing flashes, good cutting instincts, a lot to like here.

Other notes

— If Johnni Broome can’t get on the floor for meaningful minutes in this game with the specific absences the Sixers had on Monday, they straight up lit that draft pick on fire. Maxime Raynaud put up 21-19 in an NBA game tonight!

— There is a very loud “Who is the fourth guard?” contingent after the Sixers traded Jared McCain away, and my response is that I just don’t care. They should be playing more wings anyway. That said, would have been nice to have someone other than Kyle Lowry to throw on the floor in a pinch.

— The Adem Bona roller coaster ride continued on Monday, with their young backup completely unable to impact the game on defense as a rim protector or rebounder.