When the Philadelphia 76ers find themselves without any of their three max players, one can safely assume that their chances of winning a game aren’t particularly high.
Now granted, the team still has Quentin Grimes, who has been near-single-handedly challenging “The Tank” with his ability to seemingly drop 30 at will as a number one option, but sub out Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and Joel Embiid, plus veteran roleplayers like Kyle Lowry, Andre Drummond, and Eric Gordon, and the 76ers are not a team with a very high ceiling against even average opponents.
And yet, in their Monday night showdown against Houston, a team that didn’t even have surprise starting center Oshae Brissett on their internal notes, the 76ers were able to stay in it right until the end because of an incredible showing from 3, going 24-49 from beyond the arc in the team’s seven-point overtime loss to the Rockets.
Now granted, when you unleash 49 3-pointers, plenty are going to go in, but even in a game where the team hit 52.3 percent from beyond the arc, the sheer volume of 24 made 3s is impressive because the 76ers haven’t hit that mark in a single other game this season, not in a win with Embiid, not in a loss, never. Philly was so on fire against the Rockets that even before overtime, their 22 made 3s still would have been a record for the season, which is incredibly impressive considering practically their entire expected playoff rotation heading into the season wasn’t on the court.
To make matters all the more impressive, Philadelphia completed their impressive showing by losing the game in overtime, falling to the Rockets 144-137 in a game that should improve their odds of retaining their first-round pick this summer, depending on how the lottery shakes out. Philly got to have its cake and eat it, too, and the Rockets got to add a win to their record, leaving everyone in attendance happy regardless of who they were rooting for.
Now sitting pretty at 23-45, the 76ers are set up well for the lottery, have a few fun young players to continue to monitor for the next few weeks, and might have even found something in Grimes, Justin Edwards, and maybe even Jared Butler, who finished the game with 21 points on 7-15 shooting from the field and 8-14 from beyond the arc. Throw in a quick start of Jalen Hood-Schifino in a 76ers uniform, and who knows, maybe Philadelphia will be able to hit the ground running this fall.
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