3 observations after McCain and Maxey lead Sixers to victory with electric shotmaking

3 observations after McCain and Maxey lead Sixers to victory with electric shotmaking originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers finally have a non-overtime win under their belt.

Jared McCain and Tyrese Maxey starred Friday night and the Sixers earned a 113-98 victory over the Nets at Wells Fargo Center.

The Sixers improved to 3-12 and the Nets dropped to 6-10. In East Group A of the NBA Cup, both the Sixers and Brooklyn are 1-2.

McCain was incredible yet again, recording a seventh consecutive 20-point game. He scored 30 and Maxey had 26 on 11-for-17 shooting.

Nets forward Cam Johnson scored 37 points and shot 9 for 13 from three-point range.

The Sixers were down Joel Embiid (left knee swelling), Paul George (left knee bone bruise) and Kyle Lowry (right hip strain).

They’ll host the Clippers on Sunday night. Here are observations on the team’s win over Brooklyn:

Sixers turn to Yabusele at center

Coming off a 5-for-6 night from three-point range Wednesday in a loss to the Grizzlies, Guerschon Yabusele started at center. He began the night on former Sixers All-Star Ben Simmons, who was predictably booed on every touch. The crowd reacted gleefully when Simmons missed a wide-open layup in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, Yabusele kept the sweet jumpers flowing, draining two early threes. He ended the night with 10 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.

“The thing about him is he doesn’t make very many mistakes,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “He’s solid, first of all. And then he also provides a good three-point threat, as he did to start the game. I thought that gave us a great lift.

“He’s got a pretty good, safe pair of hands getting the ball transferred around, too. He plays really hard. He rebounds. He’s a smart guy and plays hard, and he’s really solid. And you throw in that he can post here and there and chuck in a three … he’s playing well.”

Kelly Oubre Jr. moved back to the Sixers’ starting lineup after three consecutive games on the second unit. He skied high to slam in a Yabusele miss and give the Sixers a 13-4 lead.

The Sixers used a 10-man rotation and had Andre Drummond match up against Nets big man Nic Claxton.

Drummond was good in his first stint, scrapping for rebounds and troubling the Nets with his physical presence. One of Drummond’s three offensive boards led to a Reggie Jackson corner three. A McCain-to-Drummond alley-oop extended the Sixers’ lead to 44-33.

Turnovers and free throws crucial

In his second game since returning from a right hamstring injury, Maxey played 26 minutes. He had a much, much better night than his 3-for-13 game in Memphis.

McCain was the Sixers’ last starter to take a field goal. Late in the first quarter, he sunk back-to-back threes.

McCain remained very sharp in terms of moving the ball quickly, spotting open teammates and relocating savvily into fruitful spots. Over his last eight games, he’s averaged 9.6 three-point attempts and shot 45.5 percent from long range.

“He’s good at basketball, man,” Maxey said of McCain. “He’s fearless. When you’re fearless like that and you have that type of confidence, it’s a good feeling. We need that. We need him to be that guy for the duration of the season.

“There’s going to be different times when he has to play different roles — with Jo in there, with P in there, with me in there — but he has to be this guy who’s fearless, who can make shots, who can play defense and kind of play a lot of different roles.”

Turnovers and free throws were the Sixers’ two major statistical advantages early. They held a 15-7 halftime advantage in points off turnovers and took the game’s first 14 foul shots. Johnson torched them throughout the night, but the Sixers at least did well to avoid conceding easy, momentum-halting points at the foul line.

Still, the Sixers allowed a 12-2 Brooklyn run to close the first half. Johnson’s fifth three-pointer cut the Nets’ deficit to 53-50.

Maxey and McCain deliver over and over

The Sixers’ trend of terrible third quarters looked set to continue Friday. With threes from Cam Thomas and Dorian Finney-Smith, Brooklyn built a 64-55 lead.

Maxey and the Sixers pushed back, though. The All-Star guard celebrated demonstratively after an and-one hoop that put his team back on top.

The Sixers fell behind again early in the fourth quarter, partly because of a string of missed Eric Gordon jumpers, but the McCain-Maxey duo then surged into the spotlight with electric shotmaking.

McCain delivered a smooth lefty layup and a pure pull-up three. Maxey hurt the Nets often in transition, nailed a tightly contested step-back three and seized complete control of the game. An automatic-seeming catch-and-shoot three from McCain served as the dagger.

With some friendly prodding from Maxey, McCain acknowledged screaming out, “I’m the Rookie of the Year!“ at one point.

“I’m in the flow state,” he said, “so I don’t know what came to my mind at that moment, but I guess I said that. … Yeah, I did say that. It was pretty clear. It’s one of my goals for this season, obviously. It’s just that competitiveness coming out of me. I respect every other rookie in this league, but I’m obviously going to believe in myself. So yeah, some words definitely came out at that point.”

The Sixers suddenly had plenty to smile about Friday thanks to their two talented young guards.

“There were a couple plays when we didn’t get a great shot,” Maxey said, “so I was like, ‘Look, Nurse, we’ll figure it out. We’ll go flat, me and him will play ball screen, and either he’ll make a good play or I’ll make a good play.’

“When you have two ball handlers out there, it makes the game a lot easier. … You can kind of catch your breath a little bit. I know he’s going to make the right play and I know I’m trying to make the right play. Then you have (other) guys flying around, making shots and playing extremely hard on defense and offense as well.”