Instant observations: VJ Edgecombe game-winner saves Sixers in overtime vs. Grizzlies

VJ Edgecombe scored 25 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter and overtime, and he nailed the first game-winning shot of his career to push the Sixers to a 139-136 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Here’s what I saw.

Crunch-time Edgecombe

Stop me if you have heard this before: VJ Edgecombe got several major opportunities with the game hanging in the balance, and he made huge play after huge play for the Sixers. It has arguably been the story of his rookie season that he has persevered through up-and-down games to deliver massive shotmaking and defensive plays when his team needs it the most. Add another clutch game to the books for Mr. Edgecombe after Tuesday’s win in Memphis.

He was 1/5 from three and sitting on just nine points coming into the final frame, and all he did was chip in three made threes and a pair of extraordinarily tough layups to help Philadelphia pull away from the home team.

And yet, he saved his best work for even later. As time wound down in overtime, Edgecombe set a ball screen for Tyrese Maxey above the break, and as the Grizzlies converged on the soon-to-be All-Star to make someone else beat them, Edgecombe collected the ball calmly, rose into his jumper, and put this game to rest.

Absolutely zero fear at any time. It has been a delight to watch him go to work in year one, and I look forward to seeing him develop in the years ahead.

Bad defense, better offense

Giving up 40 points to a stinky Memphis Grizzlies offense in a single quarter should be much harder than the Sixers made it look on Tuesday night. They would have had to actually try to play defense to feel bad about the Grizz shooting the lights out, but that didn’t happen. Memphis was able to build momentum by stepping into a gaggle of practice shots, sprinting out to an early lead in the process.

There were many crimes against basketball committed by Sixers defenders in this one. To name a few:

• There was a lot of overhelping from one pass away on drives, something that most coaches at any level would not ask you to do. Nick Nurse does want to play aggressively in passing lanes and lean toward turnovers at the expense of corner threes, but they did not find the right balance against Memphis
• Their transition defense is just godawful at times, even after a big rebound from the start of the year. They gave up a few buckets on possessions immediately after their own scores and even after a made free throw on one ghastly possession in the third quarter. Clean it up!
• The point of attack defense against Ja Morant was, well, an adventure. VJ Edgecombe has played plenty of good defense over the last month, but he was BBQ chicken for a good chunk of this game. This amplified issue No. 1, naturally.

Here’s the good news: Philly’s offense was as fluid as I can remember it looking on a night with all of their “Big 3” available this season. Just about every player on the floor had opportunities to eat, the ball moved quickly, off-ball actions were used deliberately, and it felt like a purposeful approach they have lacked when trying to get the most out of their starry talents. Paul George lagged behind Embiid and Maxey, but this group finally looked like a team with offensive firepower rather than a group of players who just met last week.

It certainly helps when Embiid and Maxey are absolutely killing on both ends of their two-man game. Maxey was a force of nature off the dribble in Tuesday’s first half, hitting killer stepback threes where the Grizzlies could only drop their shoulders and shake their heads after watching the next ridiculous make go down. He punctuated an outstanding first half with his most ridiculous trick of the first 24 minutes, hitting a disjointed three-point runner to tie the score at 72 and send the Sixers into the break feeling good.

Maxey’s shooting, combined with Embiid’s big-bodied screening, remains a killer feature of this offense. And you can see a level of trust in one another that far surpasses any other combination on the roster. While Maxey can be reluctant to look for other teammates when he’s rolling, he nearly always hits Embiid when the big man has found an opening in the defense. That trust is well-founded — Embiid had 19 points of his own in the first half, along with four assists on just a single turnover as the Grizzlies sent two and three bodies at him in the middle of the floor. He was decisive from all levels of the floor, and even had a sequence late in the third reminiscent of Sixers legend Moses Malone, tapping two and three different offensive rebounds off of the glass before finally slapping one back off the backboard and into the net for two points.

Things got a bit tougher in the second half, unsurprisingly against a pretty good Grizzlies defense. Memphis succeeded in baiting Embiid into taking more long jumpers, and the big man struggled on threes and foot-on-the-line threes alike. It was a product of the defensive coverage rather than a deliberate attempt to force the ball to Embiid, and he has to punish teams if they load up on Maxey’s trips to the basket to the degree they did. Once the game got to overtime, Embiid showed the wear and tear of a man who has not played extended minutes for most of the season. He was able to bail them out of one half-court possession with a tough jab step into a made jumper, but the follow-up was a wild one-handed miss that allowed the Grizzlies to tie the game once again in the final 30 seconds of extra time.

I thought the Sixers benefitted quite a bit from playing fast on Tuesday night, with the caveat that Maxey showed horrible situational awareness late in the game. With Memphis drawing closer and closer in the final two minutes, Maxey took an early clock pull-up two with just over a minute to go and clanged it, setting the stage for Ja Morant to go down and tie the game without much time coming off the clock. At least they pulled it out.

Is double big here to stay?

Elsewhere in Embiid news, this was probably the most encouraged I have been by him physically since the end of 2023. I am not anywhere close to declaring that he is “back” or that he is going to be able to reverse years of damage and injuries, but his movement and fearlessness were as good as they have been in quite a while, with Embiid feeling more adventurous on both ends of the floor. His brashness showed up first on offense, where he tried to throw an alley oop to himself off the glass to get out of a tricky spot in the lane, ultimately missing the dunk and falling to the floor.

Perhaps emboldened by the fact that his lower body didn’t disintegrate in the process, Embiid started playing more aggressively on the defensive end, blocking a shot and then diving to the floor for a loose ball on one particularly encouraging play in the second quarter. These flashes may just be temporary teases of who Embiid used to be, rather than who he might still have inside him, but it’s frankly just nice to get them at all. If they can get even 80 percent of old Embiid on defense while the offense remains at a high level, they have the youth and firepower to do some damage.

Although the Sixers did play a stretch with Paul George as the four and three guards on the floor alongside Embiid, it seems that Nurse is increasingly committed to getting another big or forward on the floor alongside Embiid. Dominick Barlow’s skill set has worked well next to No. 21, and Adem Bona got another chance at playing the four on Tuesday night, where he was able to combine with Embiid for some excellent defensive sequences, including one where they basically both blocked a shot at the rim with about a minute left in the second. Moments later, Embiid darted into a passing lane for a steal with Bona lurking at the rim, showing nice closing speed with someone else on the back end to protect the paint.

I have my qualms with Bona, but man, do I love how hard he plays. The Sixers were able to close out the third quarter riding high after multiple putback baskets were followed by an insane effort play from Bona, who blocked a streaking Grizzlies player as the horn sounded. As long as he’s able to avoid fouling while defending switches, a tall task for the second-year big man, I would be interested in seeing some more of this moving forward.

Other notes

— I love that Joel Embiid was feeling well enough physically to attempt to throw down a dunk off the backboard. I also probably don’t ever need to see him attempting that play again after watching him crumple in a heap in the Knicks series, not to mention all the other dunk-related injuries that have happened in the past. Give me some powerful two-hand, two-foot dunks from in close, and I am good on the rest.

— One thing I will give Nick Nurse credit for is his willingness to adjust his big-man rotation based on whoever the proverbial hot hand is. Adem Bona has outplayed Andre Drummond in recent weeks, so Adem Bona got the opportunity to play the non-Embiid minutes against Memphis. I know it seems like it should be that simple in pro sports, but it often isn’t.