Playing the front end of a back-to-back without four key players, the Philadelphia 76ers fell 115–101 to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. The Sixers were without Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, and Paul George, making the matchup difficult to overcome.
With the team’s top four leading scorers out for the evening, Quentin Grimes had an opportunity to work back into the offensive form he displayed toward the end of last season. Grimes began the game looking impressively aggressive, but eased off as the game continued. Despite playing 36 minutes in a blowout, he made just one shot on only four attempts in 15 second-half minutes after scoring 14 in the first half.
There wasn’t much to take away from the loss, but a few performances stood out.
Justin Edwards scored 14 points and was one of the team’s most efficient players on both ends — admittedly in a very inefficient team effort. He’s been thrown back and forth between the NBA and the G League, but to Edwards’ credit, he’s stayed hungry, ready and willing throughout the season.
Dalen Terry came to Philadelphia as one of several two-way contract replacements throughout the season. Despite his struggles early in his NBA career, Terry showcased plenty at Arizona to make teams curious about his potential, and his skill set is well-built to complement what Sixers head coach Nick Nurse tends to favor.
Nurse may not be able to turn him into a plus-level shooter, but he looked the part of a positive contributor, admittedly against a team giving little effort, especially in the final quarter. Terry finished the night with nine points, three rebounds and four assists in 19 minutes of work.
MarJon Beauchamp played just five minutes of pure garbage time, but impressed with eight points, making two of his three attempted shots from deep. Spending most of his season in Delaware with the Blue Coats, Beauchamp has had little opportunity to impress at the NBA level, but has thrilled G League fans throughout the season and made the most of what little big league chances he’s had.
Averaging 8.6 points in 13.66 minutes per game on admittedly completely unsustainable efficiency, Beauchamp deserves more of a look from Nurse, especially in games like Monday’s, where the team is massively shorthanded.
Cam Payne was brought in to fill the immediate void left after the team traded away Jared McCain. It’s been a bit of a struggle for Payne to get his NBA legs back under him, as he had been playing in Serbia and only began his season in late December.
While he’s impressed as a passer, he’s struggled to find consistency with his shot, and defense was never his calling card, even in his prime. There’s still time in the season, and Payne has been a positive presence in the locker room, but it’s hard not to be critical of the move, especially considering why signing Payne, or any player of his skill set, was necessary.
The Trendon Watford move, by and large, has not paid off for the Sixers this season. In his defense, the Sixers went from a team expecting to surround him with a number of shooters to the second-worst three-point shooting team in the league since the trade deadline, behind only the Sacramento Kings.
Watford's skillset is that of a facilitator and high-energy role player, not a shooter. He has averaged less than one attempt from three on the season and is only hitting those few he takes at a 28.6 percent clip. Without the gravity created by the Sixers’ top shooters and with Watford being a combination of unwilling and unable to contribute in that area, the team is better off splitting his minutes between players like Edwards, Jabari Walker, arguably even Terry and Beauchamp.
The team won’t have much time to reflect on their loss as they travel home for a Tuesday night matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies to wrap up their back-to-back. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on March 10.
Unless otherwise stated, all stats included in this article are via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass, Basketball Reference or Team Rankings. All salary information via Spotrac.
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