Paul George Makes Debut, 76ers fall to Suns in a Thriller

The 76ers fall to the Phoenix Suns 118-116 in a late-night thriller. This is their third straight loss and they fall to a record of 1-5. This game came down to the literal wire, they had not one but two chances to tie or take the lead on the final possession but failed to do so.

They stay on the West Coast where they will be making stops against the Lakers and at the new Intuit Dome against the Clippers. Here is the overall takeaway from tonight’s disappointing loss. 

George’s debut in the desert 

Tonight marked Paul George’s highly anticipated debut, unfortunately, he did not produce as much as we probably would have liked to see. He tallied just 15 points in 32 minutes on 4/14 from the field and 1/7 from three.

Despite this lack of production, I believe his debut looked pretty good. I think his lack of production can be posted on “rust” because overall he was getting good locks and playing pretty fluidly. He did not really show signs of that left knee bothering which is always a good sign, especially with bone bruises.

He was still able to contribute and look good defensively as he held Devin Booker to 13 points on 3/18 from the field with no threes made attempts.

In that second half where the Sixers got their rhythm, George actually took a step back and stopped trying to force offense which definitely benefited the team overall.

Just generally speaking, his cohesion with the other guys looked great, especially Drummond. Those two ran a pretty good two-man which is good to see for potential rotations where PG is on and Joel Embiid is off. 

Offense picks up pace in Second Half

The Sixers have started off their year shooting very poorly from three, as it stands they are ranked 29th in the league in 3p%.

Tonight was a different story. They shot 38.5% on a great volume of 52 threes. The bulk of this three-point explosion came from Guerschon Yabusele and Tyrese Maxey. They combined for 11/26 from three. They got them in very different ways, however, which I think is an important distinction for this team. All five of Yabusele’s threes came off the catch, whereas 5 of Maxey’s 6 came on the move.

Of course, this shows their different roles, but it just highlights how useful these two are going to be in an Embiid-centric offense. 

Staying competitive amidst the PHX 3

Honestly, this was certainly a game that the Sixers blew. They carried a 2-possession lead with 2:30 minutes left in the game but that quickly evaporated due to none other than Kevin Durant. Durant exploded down the stretch, scoring 8 points in the final 3:30 minutes. Durant, as he does, gave everyone the Sixers tried to throw at him trouble. He ended with 35 points on 70% from the field.

Alongside Durant, Bradley Beal also had a nice game scoring 17 points on 70% from the field as well. 

The Suns also received a lot of help from the bench: Grayson Allen scored 14 and Royce O’Neale scored 15.

This is one of those few losses that you walk away optimistic about. This team showed a lot of fight against a team that can be overwhelming at times, solely due to the names they have on the team. Maxey did a phenomenal job at taking over the middle part of the game, and this game gives him a lot to build on in the succeeding games on this road trip. 

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