Instant observations: Nick Nurse shakes up rotation, Sixers nab second win of season

Looking to snap a dreadful five-game losing streak, the Sixers returned to their home floor Sunday night for a battle against the undermanned, 4-5 Charlotte Hornets. Not only did it mark the first time Paul George suited up as a Sixer at the Wells Fargo Center, but the expectation remains that it will be the last time the Sixers play before Joel Embiid makes his season debut (Tyrese Maxey’s return to the floor remains a bit farther away).

The first quarter of this game was an affront to the sport. But for the next two quarters, the Sixers finally looked like a good basketball team. Some more changes to the status quo led to positive results, and — most importantly — a major lead.

Charlotte made a major push late, but the Sixers responded — thanks in large part to rookie Jared McCain, who flashed plenty of heroics in just his ninth NBA game. McCain hit tough shot after tough shot to keep the Sixers afloat. He showed incredible composure under duress for any young player, let alone a rookie with such limited experience under his belt.

After a miraculous shot from the Hornets knotted the game back up, the Sixers entered their second overtime contest of the year, and a complete slugfest over five extra minutes resulted in a Sixers win. The Sixers are finally back in the win column. Here is what stood out from their 107-105 victory:

George suffers brief injury scare, but remains in game as Sixers’ early offense continues to sputter

The Sixers got off to another slow start offensively — save for this George-to-Andre Drummond and-one lob:

For a moment, it looked like nobody would care. While defending Hornets rookie Tidjane Salaun, George took a shot to the face that knocked him to the ground for a moment. George appeared to be in serious pain, and Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was forced to call a timeout:

When George did get up, though, he moved at full speed — and remained in the game out of the timeout.

The Sixers’ offense continued to struggle in the moments immediately following the scare, only scoring five points in the first six and a half minutes of the game. George gave them a bit of a lift and helped break the lid with a few baskets and a nifty assist to a cutting Guerschon Yabusele for a dunk, but the offense continued to struggle afterwards.

Luckily, the Sixers showed much better connectivity on the defensive end early on in this one — something Nurse mentioned being a critical point of emphasis before the game — and, in combination with Charlotte’s offense also struggling, the Sixers were somehow able to lead the game after a dozen minutes.

The score after one quarter — there are no typos here —Sixers 16, Hornets 15. 

More changes from Nurse

Nurse made a few noteworthy alterations to his rotation and depth chart during Friday night’s road loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, and continued to do so on Sunday night. Let’s run through them:

• George, who remains on a minutes restriction, has almost exclusively played in five- or six-minute bursts. He lamented the arrangement on Friday night, and Nurse said before Sunday’s game that George has been in his ear about it privately. It seemed as if Nurse was strongly considering using the nine-time All-Star in fewer, longer stints to allow him to get in a better rhythm. George ended up playing the first nine minutes and 55 seconds of the game, uninterrupted. He rested for about five minutes, and then played the final eight minutes and 11 seconds of the second quarter. His 18 first-half minutes led the team, signaling a major change in philosophy about how his playing time should be allotted. 

• With veteran Reggie Jackson still struggling to find a groove, Nurse called upon two-way player Jeff Dowtin Jr. to be his backup point guard.

• After not seeing the floor at all against the Lakers, Eric Gordon returned to his role as the team’s first perimeter player off the bench. That role belonged to rookie Jared McCain on Friday, but McCain remained in the rotation, checking in about four and a half minutes later and playing a lengthy stint. This came to the detriment of KJ Martin, who did not make the regular rotation for the first time this season despite having a strong performance against the Lakers.

Dowtin shines in opportunity

The decision to go to Dowtin immediately proved wise on Nurse’s part. In his first genuine rotation minutes of the season, the 27-year-old kept the Sixers organized and gave them some much-needed scoring juice:

Dowtin received nearly nine consecutive minutes of run, and with nine points (3-for-4 from the field, 1-for-2 from three-point range, 2-for-2 from the free throw line), he led the team in scoring by the time he checked out of the game:

Nurse actually went back to Dowtin later in the first half in a lineup that also included Kyle Lowry. Despite only being on a two-way contract, Dowtin has earned an enormous amount of trust in Nurse. The two spent time together with the Toronto Raptors organization in 2022-23, and Dowtin says Nurse was a major reason he joined the Sixers late last season and agreed to return to the team.

Dowtin spent some time with PhillyVoice during Sixers training camp in The Bahamas last month to talk about his journey to Philadelphia, relationship with Nurse, on-court style, desire to earn another standard NBA contract and more.

“He just does a lot of things really solid,” Nurse said at the time, noting Dowtin’s lack of weaknesses and strong decision-making on the court.

MORE: One-on-one with Dowtin

Sixers’ core role players make strides in first half

Charlotte took the lead early in the second quarter and stayed ahead for much of the dozen minutes of action, but the Sixers were able to pull ahead and enter intermission with a 46-45 lead.

The team’s struggles with Drummond on the floor this year have been well-documented. And even in a first half when Drummond scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds, the Sixers were throughly outplayed during his minutes (but made up for it during Yabusele’s minutes at the five). Drummond did play much better than he has for much of the year, though, doing all of the simpler tasks within his role and avoiding poor decisions. That is a step in the right direction.

For most of the first half, it appeared that Kelly Oubre Jr. was on track for another poor showing. But finally, a surge came, and the fan favorite swingman looked like the best version of himself. Oubre converted three straight rim finishes in the final minute of the first half, putting the Sixers in front and giving them some semblance of momentum.

Caleb Martin went scoreless in the first half as he faced off with his former team — and his twin brother, Cody — but he was at the center of an excellent defensive showing for the Sixers, who held Charlotte to 6-of-22 shooting from beyond the arc as a team (not to be outdone by the Sixers’ own 1-of-14 shooting from three-point range) and forced 14 Hornets turnovers. Caleb Martin racked up four steals in the first half alone, tying his career-high for any single full game.

MORE: Sixers role players struggling 

Nurse does more shifting around, and Yabusele pays it off with massive run

Nurse has made a point to imply as few times in recent days that when Embiid is back in the fold, Drummond will remain the Sixers’ backup center — even though they have been better across the board with Yabusele at center so far this year. But when the second half tipped off on Sunday, it was Yabusele who was on the floor and Drummond who sat on the bench.

Before the game, Nurse was asked about Yabusele lineups vastly outperforming Drummond lineups, and he said it boiled down to the floor spacing and occasional shot-making that Yabusele provides.

“He’s making his own threes at times,” Nurse said. “That’s providing room for others to operate.”

Yabusele knocked down back-to-back threes about six and a half minutes into the third quarter. 

He also played excellent basketball otherwise, though — including a pair of drives resulting in rim finishes. The Sixers, who have gotten off to poor starts to second halves time and time again in 2024-25 — Nurse theorized on Friday that his players have struggled to get their “engines” going upon returning from halftime — actually surged to kick off the third quarter. Yabusele was the driving force behind it.

McCain dazzles to end strong third quarter

The rookie just knows how to get buckets. McCain may be best-known for his terrific three-point shooting stroke, but he has all of the necessary craftiness to maneuver and finish around the basket. 

Seconds later, McCain pulled up for a transition three that not a lot of rookies would have the guts to take and drilled it:

In the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, he leveraged the threat of his three-point shot to create an advantage and work his way into an easy two-point jumper:

McCain looks every bit of the part of a no-doubt-about-it rotation player right now, a truly remarkable feat for a rookie taken in the back half of the first round playing in just his ninth regular season game.

Hornets make a late push, powered by LaMelo Ball, but Sixers respond thanks to McCain’s clutch scoring

Charlotte’s 23-year-old All-Star point guard is capable of getting hot and scoring in bunches — and he did exactly that in the middle of the fourth quarter to help the Hornets trim the lead from a game-high 16 points. On offense, the Sixers went into a bit of a lull, as George returned to the floor and just could not get going as a scorer. 

In six minutes and change, that 16-point Sixers lead turned into a one-point Hornets lead, forcing Nurse to call timeout and reevaluate.

Nurse’s five-man unit in crunch time, which oversaw the end of Charlotte’s massive run: Lowry, McCain, George, Caleb Martin and Yabusele.

This unit was able to hold the line, though, and the leader of their effort was McCain — who put the Sixers ahead on back-to-back possessions, then went on to knock down critical free throws.

Ball’s miraculous shot sends game to overtime

It was just never going to be that easy. Lowry missed a critical free throw, opening the door for Charlotte — and Ball kicked it down with a ridiculous fallaway corner three to tie the game with eight seconds left on the clock:

One George miss later, and it was time for free basketball in South Philadelphia.

Sixers win in overtime

George had already played 33 minutes by the time regulation had ended, and Nurse removed him from the game. Replacing him was Drummond, who shared the floor with Yabusele — a puzzling choice, given the Hornets had gone small and those two bigs have rarely shared the floor for the Sixers.

After 96 seconds and three Hornets offensive rebounds, Nurse pulled Drummond, bringing Oubre back into the game. Luckily for the Sixers, the Hornets did not turn any of those second-chance opportunities into points, missing a host of terrific looks. In the first three minutes of overtime, only four points were scored, as Lowry and Ball each made a pair of free throws.

Yabusele put the Sixers ahead at the two-minute mark with a bucket in the post, but Ball gave Charlotte another lead with an and-one. McCain responded again with an isolation score against Grant Williams after a nasty crossover, but a Yabusele foul of Williams with Charlotte in the bonus immediately followed. As Nurse chewed out the nearest official, Williams sunk a pair of free throws to put the Hornets ahead again.

The Sixers’ offense late in this game revolved entirely around McCain, and when he failed to convert at the rim on a drive, Oubre drew a foul crashing the glass and gave the Sixers the lead at the free throw line inside of the one-minute mark. They needed a stop against Ball, and they got it from who else but McCain, who forced a shot clock violation defending Ball on an island:

Ball fouled McCain on the other end, but Hornets rookie head coach Charles Lee challenged the call and won. The result: a jump ball, which Charlotte used to regain possession as they trailed by a point with 15 seconds left.

The Sixers were able to get a stop, and Yabusele pulled down a critical rebound before being fouled intentionally. He missed two free throws with five seconds remaining, but Caleb Martin grabbed an even more crucial board on the offensive glass and was fouled with 2.1 seconds left. Charlotte’s final prayer went unanswered, and after what felt like multiple years worth of basketball but was only 53 minutes, the Sixers emerged victorious.

Up next: The Sixers will have Monday off, but then will play their first back-to-back of the year — and it will not be an easy one. First, the New York Knicks will come to town for a Tuesday night battle that kicks off this year’s NBA Cup and serves as a rematch of last year’s epic playoff series between the two teams. On Wednesday night, the Sixers will host the most impressive team of the 2024-25 NBA season to date: the 11-0 Cleveland Cavaliers, who look like an absolute juggernaut.

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