Sometimes in an afternoon road game you got to be happy just getting out of there with a win. The Sixers narrowly defeated the Chicago Bulls 127-121 Sunday afternoon.
Jaylen Brown went for a team-high 29 points and seven rebounds on 11-of-22 shooting. Tyrese Maxey zoomed his way to 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting with seven assists.
Joel Embiid labored his way to a better outing, finishing with 18 points shooting 7-of-19 from the floor along with 10 rebounds, eight of them coming on the offensive end. LeBron James bounced back in a big way, putting up 22 points, a Sixers high, going 8-of-16 from the floor along with five rebounds and five assists. Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis led the Bulls with 19 apiece.
The Sixers were again without Adem Bona and Dominick Barlow. Norm Powell was out for Chicago, but Nic Claxton made his first appearance for the Bulls in this one.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- The Sixers opened the game trying to get Embiid going from the field, but he missed a three and a post-up on their first two possessions. Chicago didn’t meet any resistance, starting the game 10-of-15 from the field. Embiid did grab an offensive rebound falling down and dove out of bounds to save a loose ball — the Sixers scored second-chance points on both of those opportunities. His first field goal was a putback of his own blocked shot.
- Edgecombe carried over his strong performance from the night before. He forced a steal and a tough shot on back-to-back possessions for their first quality stops on the night and helped kickstart a 7-0 Sixers run. His second corner three of the night added to that run on the other end of the floor.
- Nick Nurse subbed out LeBron and Brown first rather than the usual Maxey and Brown, at least momentarily. Embiid got a much more comfortable post-up in a more familiar lineup and once again put back his own miss before being subbed out at the next dead ball. Brown checked into the game about 30 seconds later.
- It took a couple of minutes to get some results, but Jabari Walker did a lot good things in the 2:57 he played to close the quarter. He found a cutting Maxey down the baseline with a nice bounce pass but Maxey smoked the layup. A few possessions later, Walker grabbed an offensive rebound but also smoked the layup. Brown was able to get that offensive rebound and after getting his putback attempt blocked, he kicked the ball out to the perimeter where it was swung to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for a three. KCP found Walker with a cut and he finally got on the board as well, helping the Sixers take a one-point lead after a high scoring first.
Second Quarter
- Brown started the game 1-of-5 on jumpshots, but was 4-of-6 to start the game at the basket. Walker continued to have really good hustle minutes, pulling down two much needed more offensive rebounds. After a slow start LeBron backed down Isaac Okoro and drew a foul on his hook shot for the and-1.
- That really seemed to do the trick as LeBron scored eight of the Sixers’ next 10 points. Brown got a tough pull-up to go, and after a long rebound he tried to hit LeBron with a touchdown pass that got broken up by Okoro. They were still able to find LeBron on the long ball as KCP stole it right back. LeBron then hit a three and got into the paint for both a floater and a trip to the line.
- Embiid checked back into the game and had a layup attempt blocked and missed an easy one on the next trip down the floor. Maxey did a good job to get each other involved, getting himself open off an Embiid post-up. His drive on the next possession got Embiid open under the free throw line and he finally buried a midrange jumper. Maxey nearly put Josh Giddey on a poster, but got fouled and threw his attempt off the back of the rim.
- Offensively, it was a good example of playing through your struggles for Embiid as he continued to post-up Chicago’s smaller bigs, putting him in great position to grab his misses and lay it back in. He also hit another jumper from the free throw line, helping the Sixers stay up seven at the half despite the Bulls scoring eight straight points right at the basket.
Third Quarter
- That didn’t carry over halves though as Embiid missed three jumpers to start the third as the Bulls ripped off seven straight. Maxey drilled a three to get the Sixers going and they seemed to settle back in. Embiid got himself an open reverse layup and Brown took advantage of a steal to get himself to the basket again.
- Right after LeBron picked up a tech, Brown hit an acrobatic layup through a lot of contact, and had a reasonable gripe that he didn’t get a foul called as well. Even without the foul, the Sixers’ offense started to run pretty smoothly. Brown still got to the line of the following possession, Edgecombe drilled another three for his first points since the first, and Embiid made a good read to find LeBron open on the block.
- This was definitely the Sixers’ best offensive rebounding performance of the season. Walker was a big reason for that, but it was a team-wide effort. Dean Wade became the fifth Sixer of the night to pull down an offensive rebound and when the Sixers came up empty again, Walker helped pop the fall up long enough for Anfernee Simons to grab his first offensive rebound of the night.
- Walker hit a three from the top of the key to punctuate the night he was having, which was good because the Sixers needed every point they could get. Just about everyone on Chicago was still able to get to the basket with ease. They shot 13-of-17 from the field in the third, ending the quarter on a 6-0 run to cut the Sixers lead to six.
Fourth Quarter
- Edgecombe got to the line for the first points of the fourth, but not before Brown missed two at the line to give the people of Chicago free hot dogs. Edgecombe had a big transition dunk, but left the game a few moments later after colliding with Giddey contesting a shot. Thankfully it was not a long trip to the locker room and he would eventually return to the game.
- It remained a struggle to keep the Bulls down long enough to put the game away, but the Sixers did continue to go on spurts to keep themselves at arms’ length. Brown hit a couple of threes as he had found his jumper. LeBron went for a poster as well but also had to settle for a trip to the free throw line. James also hit a fadeaway midrange a few moments later.
- Embiid missed a couple more jumpers and had another blocked by Jalen Smith shortly after checking back into the game. KCP drilled a three for some momentary breathing room, but Caleb Wilson drilled his second three of the night to make it a one-possession game with three and a half minutes to go.
- After trying to buy a couple of minutes for Brown and LeBron while Edgecombe made sure he was good to go, Nurse put all the starters back in out of his timeout. Embiid did a great job to grab another offensive rebound off a missed James jumper and flip it back in for the layup. He got to the line on the following possession, but Maxey had given Okoro an easy and-1 in between to keep the Bulls right there.
- A LeBron drive gave Maxey open space to make up for it, and he did with a three for his first points of the quarter. The Bulls were in the bonus though and Edgecombe put Wilson on the line on a non-shooting foul. Giddey was able to find Matas Buzelis for another wide open dunk to once again cut it to a three-point game.
- Brown was able to get to the line on the following possession, but the Sixers not only came up empty off a LeBron steal, but Embiid was called for a foul trying to grab the rebound, putting Smith at the line. Smith was unable once again to keep it a one-score game, splitting the pair, and the Sixers were able to win the game from the line from there. A win too close for comfort, but afternoon games can always be funky especially on the road, so a win nonetheless.
