The Philadelphia 76ers dominated the fourth quarter, 30-17, to outlast the visiting Dallas Mavericks, 121-114, who had won six of their eight games heading into Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The 76ers were once again led by Tyrese Maxey (38 points, 4 assists) and VJ Edgecombe (26 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), but Dominick Barlow tied his previous career high with 21 points.
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With this victory, this is the 6th victory for the 76ers in the past 8 games. The 76ers’ record this season has improved to 16 wins and 11 losses.
This is what I see.
Dominique Barlow’s career night attacking the rim
Two-way forward Dominick Barlow has impressed early and has been in the starting lineup in 14 of the 17 games he has played so far this season.
But Barlow’s role is primarily on the boards, where he’s one of the Sixers’ more active rebounders on both ends, and defensively, where his mobility, length and versatility have really helped plug holes in the Sixers’ defensive rankings over the past month.
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For context, the Sixers allowed 3.4 fewer points per 100 possessions with Barlow on the floor than they did with him on the bench, and the Sixers were able to get 72.1 percent of their defensive rebounding opportunities when he was on the floor compared to just 68.8 percent with him on the bench.
But Barlow’s offense has often been an afterthought, and his 15.3 points per 100 possessions rank just 13th on the team.
Not tonight.
Barlow seemed to take advantage of every opportunity to step up and attack Dallas off the dribble. It certainly helps that Klay Thompson actively prevents Klay Thompson from dribbling when he has the opportunity. But for the most part, Dallas has enough size, athleticism and weak-side help that they should be able to limit a non-shooter like Barlow. Instead, the Mavericks lost control time and time again when shutting down on the perimeter, and once Barlow got into a rhythm, he used that tendency to create plenty of opportunities for himself at the rim.
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All told, Barlow finished with 21 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals, which was (so far) the highest score of his time with the 76ers (his previous high was 13 points in the first game) and tied his career-high he set while playing for the Spurs in 2022-23.
There are a number of reasons why Barlow’s breakout was so huge. First, with Joel Embiid, Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. out of the lineup, they’ll need to attack from unlikely places. But Barlow was such an offensive threat tonight that it was easy for head coach Nick Nurse to keep him on the floor as much as possible. Dallas’ length on the wing makes him great defensively.
VJ Max sets the standard again
We’ve been commenting on the consistency of VJ Edgecombe’s shooting for much of the season, and it was one of the question marks as he entered the draft. At the beginning of the game, Edgecombe shot 39.3% from three-point range.
But most of the damage is done by catching the ball. In fact, as of Dec. 13, Edgecomb was shooting just 6-for-25 from 3-point range off the dribble and 19-for-69 overall on dribble jumpers. This was a real weakness in his game early in his NBA career.
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But over the past few games, that has started to turn around. He hit a pull-up 3-pointer against the Knicks and a two-pointer tonight against the Mavericks, including a tough, contested screen 3-pointer in the first quarter that ended with a four-point win.
Obviously, no one expected Edgecombe to transform into Tyrese Maxey overnight, but the fact that he was even looking for those three people on screen shows all the work he put into his shots, and the confidence he gained as a result. As I mentioned in last night’s recap, VJ Edgecombe was just as good Nowhe’s done a lot of things that you’ll see and be curious about what this Edgecombe/Maxey duo can do in a few years.
This dual schedule — where Edgecomb is now a significant positive contributor and appears to be just scratching the surface of his potential — is a luxury for a team like the Sixers. Yes, Maxey is playing at an all-league level and you want to do whatever it takes to give him a chance to play. But he’s also only 25 years old and has plenty of running room for the Sixers’ future backcourt to grow and develop with each other.
Edgecomb once again performed well in this game, scoring 26 points on 10 of 21 shooting, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Over the past four games, he is now averaging 24.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, and his stability and two-way impact have arguably outweighed his exciting start to the season.
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I also add Tyrese Maxey to this section, who scored a game-high 38 points on 31-of-15 shooting. He’s knocking down corner 3s in transition, hitting the long pull-up shots we’ve become accustomed to, and using his speed against tough interior defenses. Again I’m guilty of raving about his performance, but it goes to show how ridiculous his improvement is because he can drop 38 points which we’re used to by now.
center switch
Young big man Adem Bonner has been disappointing for much of the first 26 games of the season. Meanwhile, Andre Drummond, who barely played last year, has been a bright spot. As the toe injury healed, his condition improved significantly during the offseason, and coupled with Bona’s disappointment, Drummond occupied the backup center position.
That dynamic reversed tonight, with Bona’s activity and athleticism giving the Sixers a boost against a Dallas team that has good positional size and athleticism, but not much of a layup threat off the dribble. Bona is able to rotate and convert shots that Drummond can’t reach, and Dallas doesn’t have an electric defender to make him pay for his mistakes.
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Boehner is not perfect. He still missed some passes he should have passed, and while six offensive rebounds helped the Sixers get a second chance to score, his defensive rebounding was still an issue. Still, he changed up his shot, matched Dallas’ athleticism, and provided the Sixers with a vertical lob threat, even if he couldn’t necessarily capitalize on every opportunity.
As good as Drummond is, the Sixers could really use Bona to play better. That’s true, and not just because Joel Embiid will obviously continue to miss games, making the Sixers’ third-line center more important than most teams’ third-line centers. But they do need a long-term backup center, and Drummond, 32, is unlikely to be in the final year of his contract.
