In win over Miami Heat, Sixers have a little letdown, but a whole lot of good

All Nick Nurse is looking for from his Sixers is for all of it to come together.

His vision of what that is and how it is to be done is agreed to by his roster, and when it works you can understand why. Even with the constant shuffling of the lineup, there rarely is a case when he's asking a player to do anything outside of the limits of their talents.

They say a team is a reflection of their coach and that's what Nurse is looking for. Watching him on the sidelines is a case study of activity from a coach — jumping up and down to get his team in the right places offensively; waving his arms frantically to get his helter-skelter defense to the ball and rotating so as not to allow open jump shots; and there are his many, many animated discussions with referees.

It's not really complicated what Nurse wants from his group. In guards Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes and Cam Payne, he wants speed, quickness, movement and the ball to be jacked from anywhere and everywhere. He also wants threes from wingman Kelly Oubre, Jr. and a plethora of activity from subs Adem Bona, Trendon Watford, Jabari Walker and others. And then, of course, there are times when he'll need the team to slow down and wait for Joel Embiid to make it down the floor so they can feed one of the best scorers in the league.

Sometimes it's there, and when it is, you can blatantly see a team that is playing its best brand of basketball. But when shots aren't falling or the team becomes stagnant or they have trouble rebounding the basketball, the vision of what the team is trying to accomplish becomes a blur.

Thursday night against the Miami Heat, all of it was pretty much on display for the Sixers. 

A first half delivered the style and hope that the roster can give. Maxey was banging threes from all over, scoring 20 points in the first quarter while passing Allen Iverson for the most three-pointers in team history. Embiid was moving like he was 10 years younger and dominating whatever type of defense Miami coach Eric Spoelstra was attempting to throw at him. Oubre and Edgecombe joined Embiid and Maxey as first-half double-digit scorers, and the team rode a huge second quarter into a 73-57 lead at the break.

"We did a really good job of emphasizing getting back and guarding the ball," said Maxey, who finished with a team-high 28 points. "We did a good job of staying in front of your man, trying not to help as much so we didn't give up as many threes. We had a little letdown, probably in the third, but in the fourth quarter we buckled down, got stops, got rebounds and won the game."

Oh, the letdown was more than just "a little," as the Sixers missed their first eight shots of the third quarter and Miami began it with a 19-4 run. The Heat was able to grab a few leads, but never by more than one point. The Sixers treaded water in the third and got big contributions in the fourth to hold on and improve to 33-26 on the year.

Down the stretch, the stars starred. Maxey was everywhere. He had an assist on a three by Oubre with 1:52 to go for a 121-117 lead and set up Embiid for a wide open corner three that the big man nailed with 29 seconds remaining for the final points of the game. Embiid did it while overriding his intended minutes of play and with soreness on the right side of his rib area after taking a knee there earlier in the game.

"I thought we played really good for about 42 minutes," Nurse said. "There was a six or eight minute stretch in there that was not so good. Other than that, I thought we played pretty good. Really proud that in the last two and a half to three minutes defensively, we just had to guard better and stop switching so much and we got through some screens and we really rebounded the ball at the end. Little bit of a roller coaster game, but that's who we are a little bit. Good to come out on the end of the roller coaster."

When Spoelstra went to a zone in the second half, it really seemed to throw the Sixers into offensive confusion. But eventually they solved it by Maxey and Edgecombe breaking through on drives to the basket, with Oubre, Grimes and Dominick Barlow hitting threes and Embiid being Embiid. Basically, they played the way they and their coach want to play.

"They play a funky zone," said Embiid. "It's not like a normal 2-3 zone. They do like a tandem, they do different things out of it. But we did a good job. VJ did a good job of just driving the zone, making plays out of it, just getting behind it, just drive it and make a play. Barlow and Bona kind of snuck behind it and made a play a couple of times. It's just weird. It's different."

But on this night, it was ultimately solvable for the Sixers, playing the way they all envision. 

Notes

Nurse said he didn't have an update on Embiid's side, which he grabbed constantly after the first half contact. He wore a wrap that he constantly fooled with and even removed at one point. Talking about the three Embiid made for the final points of the game, Edgecombe said, "I think that shows a lot. The media tries to makes it seem like he doesn't want to play basketball. Come on. He's out there in pain and he made a big shot at the end of the game. Like, he could barely raise his right hand up. That just shows his character. He cares about winning and it's Joel Embiid, bro."