3 observations after Sixers finish road trip on high note by dominating Nets

3 observations after Sixers finish road trip on high note by dominating Nets originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW YORK — The Sixers decisively flipped back to winning ways Saturday night.

They earned a 123-94 victory over the Nets to avoid a three-game losing streak, finish a 4-2 road trip and improve to 14-19 overall.

Joel Embiid posted 28 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in 29 minutes.

Tyrese Maxey recorded 18 points and seven assists. Paul George and Caleb Martin each scored 17 points.

Jared McCain (left lateral meniscus surgery), KJ Martin (left foot stress reaction) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (left foot sprain) were out. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame that Oubre’s injury is a “day-to-day” matter. The 29-year-old wing worked out on the Barclays Center floor before the game.

The 13-22 Nets’ long list of players sidelined by injuries included Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and Ben Simmons. D’Angelo Russell was ruled out at halftime because of a right shin contusion.

The Sixers will return to Philadelphia and host the Suns on Monday night. Here are observations on their win Saturday in Brooklyn:

Embiid seizes command in 1st quarter 

The Sixers tweaked their starting lineup, sliding Kyle Lowry to the bench and opening with Guerschon Yabusele.

They still fell behind out of the gates for a third consecutive game. Russell strolled into a three-pointer off the opening tip and Brooklyn rattled off an 11-0 run right away. Nurse let his team keep playing and the Sixers pushed back with a 9-0 spurt that featured threes from George and Caleb Martin.

Embiid received a technical foul less than four minutes into the night from crew chief Kevin Cutler. After the whistle had already blown for a jump ball between Embiid and Keon Johnson, the All-Star big man refused to let go of the ball.

Soon, Embiid took complete control of the game in forceful fashion. He played the entire first quarter alongside George and posed constant problems for the Nets, lifting the Sixers to a double-digit lead.

Embiid pulled down seven rebounds in the first period and scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting. He gave the basket stanchion a celebratory smack after driving in for a dunk.

“He’s so good offensively and dominant on the defensive end as well,” George said of Embiid. “And he loves to compete. … It’s fun. He’s the best player out there, and him having that competitive edge and those competitive juices flowing, it just runs through the team.”

Finally, no George foul trouble 

Saturday’s game was the first one George didn’t have foul trouble in since Christmas.

“He’s been really unlucky,” Nurse said. “Just odd, I think. But when it happens several times in a row, I always start with, ‘’Hey Paul, stop fouling.’ There’s just been such strange ones. His second one the other night, he was just chasing a guy off a screen and all of a sudden, the whistle blew. They decided that was too much. I looked at it and was like, ‘Holy smokes.’ So a little bit has been unfortunate. He’s had a couple of charging fouls as well.

“But I think he’s playing good (defense), and he’s really trying to fight in there. And when you’re doing that, you’re going to put yourself in harm’s way a little bit. But again, do show him the ones that are fouls and say, ‘We need to try to clean those up.’”

Without any George foul issues to steer around, Nurse didn’t have to adjust his preferred rotations on the fly. He used five players on the second unit, including rookie wing Justin Edwards for the second time in the past three games. Edwards was solid in his 23 minutes of action. The Kentucky product converted a driving layup off a slick spin move in the second quarter and drilled three long-range jumpers in the second half.

“This is my first game up here getting comfortable,” Edwards said. “The last couple of games I got an opportunity to play, I was overthinking a lot. But now I feel like I got my feet under me with this team, so I feel more comfortable.”

The Sixers began the second period with Maxey next to four bench players. Maxey started 1 for 7 from the floor, but Martin helped offset those shooting struggles by sinking everything he put up.

Martin made his first seven field goals, hitting tough shots in isolation and attacking well in the open floor. Then, with the Brooklyn defense focused on stopping him, Martin drove baseline and dropped off an assist to Andre Drummond.

Though Martin, George and Embiid were the standouts, the Sixers’ performance was strong on many fronts to build a 17-point halftime lead. The team’s defensive showing was much better than in Thursday night’s blowout loss to the Warriors; the Nets committed 22 turnovers in the game.

A season-best assists night  

At halftime, the Sixers were at 17 assists. That’s the same number they had to finish the Golden State game.

The Sixers ended up with 31 assists at the final buzzer, setting a new season high.

Can anything carry over for a team that ranks 29th in the NBA in assist percentage?

“Hopefully,” Nurse said. “Listen, you always say, ‘You’ve got to make the right play,’ and guys are drawing two (defenders). We’ve got a few guys that are going to draw two and when we do, we’ve got to get off it and make the right play. And that should lead to some assists, as long as we can make baskets on the end of those passes.”

The Sixers’ advantage ballooned as high as 27 points in the third quarter. Embiid fed Maxey for a backdoor, and-one layup. Maxey drained a three assisted by George. Everyone could see the sizable talent gap between the teams.

The fourth quarter was full of garbage time, although Maxey stayed in the game until the 6:50 mark. Nurse and the Sixers have sure not been inclined to jump on opportunities to lessen Maxey’s load. He entered Saturday averaging 37.2 minutes, which ranked fourth in the league. Maxey’s also played in 20 straight games.

Because of back-to-back blowouts, Maxey at least got to conclude the Sixers’ road trip with two 32-minute outings. The second was far more pleasant than the first.