Sixers Comeback Cavs

Sixers erase a 29-point deficit to stun the Cavs

The Sixers were getting embarrassed on Thursday night. They went into halftime down 69-45 to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and early in the third quarter the deficit hit 29. Then they flipped a switch, outscored Cleveland by a mile the rest of the way and walked off with a 114-106 win.

They didn’t take their first lead until the fourth quarter, and they still won by eight. That’s 2-0 to start the season, with both wins over contenders in the East.

The Third Quarter Is Finally Ours:

The comeback happened in the third. The Sixers cut that 29-point lead in half within the first few minutes, rattled off a 33-11 run and went into the fourth trailing by just eight. They scored 37 points in the quarter.

To understand how big that is, remember last season. The Sixers averaged 27.3 points in the third quarter, one of the worst marks in the entire league. Coming out of halftime used to be where this team went to die. On Thursday, it’s where they won the game. I’m not saying the third-quarter problems are gone forever, but they sure weren’t around this time.

Whatever got said at halftime, whether it came from Nick Nurse or, let’s be honest, LeBron James, it worked.

Sixers Won It in the Paint:

The one word that sums up this comeback is aggressive. The first half was ugly. Maxey went 6 of 9, and the rest of the team shot 12 of 35. The Sixers finished just 25% from three, which is miserable.

So they stopped settling.

With Embiid, LeBron and Brown on the floor, they did exactly what this roster is built to do and attacked the rim over and over again. The Sixers finished with 64 points in the paint and made only three field goals outside of it the entire night. When the shots weren’t falling, they adjusted, and that’s the kind of thing a real contender does.

Sixers Defense Showed Up:

The offense got the headlines, but the defense made the comeback possible. Cleveland came in as one of the best offenses in basketball, top four in points per game and top five in offensive rating.

The Sixers held the Cavs under 40 points in the second half and kept them from reaching 110 for the game. Defense was the biggest question mark coming into the season, and two games in, it’s starting to look like one of this team’s biggest strengths.

The Stars Carried It:

Tyrese Maxey keeps proving this is his team. He led the third-quarter charge and finished with 32 points and six assists, running the offense the whole way.

Embiid bounced back in a big way with 24 points, and he was moving well on the defensive end too. This is what happens when he’s attacking instead of standing at the three-point line.

Brown shot 50% from the field and scored 21, and LeBron added 17 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. We’ll ignore the five turnovers. He’s 41.

The Bench Is Still a Problem:

The one real concern is the second unit. Four bench players combined for nine points. Anfernee Simons went from 13 points on opening night to not making a single shot. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope took one three and made it, and that was about it.

The bench didn’t play huge minutes, since every starter logged more than 33, but that’s not sustainable over 82 games. Nurse has done a great job getting the starting five to click, and this comeback proved it. Now he has to find a way to get something, anything, out of the bench so his stars aren’t playing 38 minutes a night by January.

Questions Answered:

Every team faces adversity, and this was the Sixers’ first real test. They passed it. All the talk about whether Maxey, Embiid, LeBron and Brown could actually play together is getting quieter by the game. Next up is another East opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, on Saturday night.

Sixers basketball is back.

Join The Chase

Read More

Comments (0)

Leave a Reply

Back To Top

Discover more from The Liberty Line

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading