Well, the last time I wrote on the Sixers, they were on a two-game losing streak, now they're on a two-game WINNING streak. This mildly above average season keeps on being just that, which I'm not too upset about really. Between the Titans dreadful season and last year's awful Sixers season I am mostly grateful as a fan. Perhaps I should be the usual fan and just demand greatness 24/7 but overall I'm feeling ok about the Sixers. Well, there's a bit of news about Paul George that's rather depressing but we'll get to that.
On Tuesday the Sixers handled business against the Bucks in what was a solid victory. Paul George led all scorers as he poured in 32 points in just 33 minutes. It was seriously great to see George have a night like that. George has been unofficially seen as the fourth or fifth scoring option these days but still, it's nice to see that he's capable of going off like this. It must keep opponents on their toes I imagine. Embiid scored 29 and Maxey scored 22 so overall it was a really solid night for the Big Three. A lot of other players saw some more minutes while the main guys got to have a few minutes shaved off their normal workload. That's always excellent to see. One of the guys who saw some more minutes was Jared McCain. McCain dropped in 17 points in 14 minutes of action. McCain was also 6/8 shooting, including 5/6 from three-point land!!! McCain's short career has been up and down overall, but it's clear he's still got some elite skills!
Thursday's game against the Kings turned out to be way more challenging despite the Kings being a pretty poor team. The Sixers got it done, but it wasn't easy. The Sixers had a fair bit of control throughout the first half, but the Kings came storming back in the second half. The fourth quarter was particularly precarious as the Kings held some concerningly large leads midway through the fourth. But the Sixers locked in as a team and got the two-point win, even if it was a bit sloppy. Embiid and Maxey scored 77 combined points which was 68% of the Sixers total points. Pretty crazy. Then if you include Paul George's 15 points, the Big Three accounted for 81% of their total points. That's honestly pretty nuts to think about especially when you consider the new status of Paul George...
Paul George was suspended for 25 games today after violating the league's anti-drug policy. The fine details are pretty vague but the bottom line is simple, George won't be playing on the court again until SPRING. Hopefully March 25th against the Chicago Bulls when the Sixers will have 10 games remaining.
While really unfortunate for many obvious reasons, I'll attempt to look at some silver linings. Paul George is older so having him healthy and available later in the year will be a solid ace up the Sixers' sleeve. Also, the Sixers are set to save a decent amount of money as the suspension for George is without pay.
So we'll see how this all shakes out. Some other guys can also see some valuable playing time. Jared McCain doesn't play the same position as George but I'm curious to see if he sees some extra minutes in a roundabout way.
Tonight the 26-21 Sixers see the 13-37 New Orleans Pelicans and Embiid is expected to play AGAIN which is awesome. The Sixers remain locked as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference which is ok. What is concerning though is, the gap between the Sixers and the top five teams in the East is expanding while the gap between the Sixers and the seventh seeds and below remains razor thin. With George now gone things might get a little tougher but we shall see...
Should be a fun one!