Another game, another career-high for Jared McCain.
The Sixers threatened, but were unable to hand the Cleveland Cavaliers their first loss of the season, falling 114-106 Wednesday.
On top of the Big 3, who missed this game due to injury, the Sixers were also without Andre Drummond who came down with an illness today.
In their absence, McCain carried the offense to a new career high, finishing with 34 points and 10 assists. He shot 12-of-26 from the field and 6-of-13 from three. Kelly Oubre Jr. finished with 20 while Caleb Martin had 18. Darius Garland led Cleveland in scoring with 25.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- Unsurprisingly, the Sixers had a hard time generating shots inside the three-point line. Eight of their first 11 shots of the game were from behind the arc. They swung the ball around enough to get some open looks, and made enough of those threes to keep pace with the Cavs who weren’t off to the hottest start themselves.
- A big reason is that the Sixers got some solid wing play in the quarter. Caleb Martin’s disruptiveness on defense seems to have really ratcheted up in the last week or so. He had two steals early. Both him and Kelly Oubre Jr. each knocked down a three which has been a rare sight, and Oubre finally got some runners to fall as well.
- For as good as Guerschon Yabusele has been, there’s just not much he can offer in the way in terms of rim protection. That meant Adem Bona was going to have to play tonight, and he was OK in his first few minutes out there. The Cavs still got to the basket fairly easily, but somehow Bona played the last three minutes of the quarter without committing a foul. After shooting 57% from the field, the first ended with a four-point Cleveland lead.
Second Quarter
- Starting 0-for-3 tonight after a rough night against the Knicks, Jeff Dowtin Jr. was supplanted by Reggie Jackson to start the second. Jackson did provide an immediate boost by knocking down his first three jumpers of the game as the Sixers started the quarter on a 12-1 run.
- Bona’s first shift lasted about six minutes in total. While he looked every bit the rookie, he even looked unsure getting outlet passes to the guards, but he had some solid moments. He had a strong contest at the rim that forced Evan Mobley to miss everything. His only foul was him rising up to stop a Jarrett Allen dunk.
- McCain certainly seemed ready for his first NBA start. He led the Sixers in points and assists at the break with 16 and five. He had a harder time getting to that scoop layup against these bigs, but he was doing just fine with his jumpers. It’s already difficult to come up with new ways to describe how surprisingly good he’s been through the first 11 games of his career. The Sixers went into the half with a six-point lead.
Third Quarter
- The offense had a choppiness to it to start the second half that wasn’t there in the first. McCain had a couple turnovers trying to be ambitious and one pass he just flat out dropped. Kyle Lowry had an ugly one as well trying to draw a foul. Less than four minutes in and the Cavs had retaken the lead.
- Lowry started the season over 60% from three, but is just at 11% over his last four games coming into tonight. Through three quarters he was 0-of-6 from the field and 0-of-4 from three. Jackson was a quick sub for Lowry early in the third. Lowry’s shooting will definitely even out, but the dramatic swings can be tough when he can’t really score anywhere else right now.
- While it may have felt like the Sixers could have been riding McCain too much, the minutes when he checked out showed why. Half-court offense was a struggle, but for some reason the Cavs weren’t able to put them away. An Oubre putback layup with seconds left made it a four-point Cavs’ lead after three.
Fourth Quarter
- An impressive part of McCain’s night was the assists he was able to rack up even with all of the shots he was taking. He opened the fourth with a really nice skip pass to Jackson who buried the three. McCain scored or assisted nine of the first 11 Sixers’ points of the quarter.
- Bona didn’t end the night with any highlights, but the fact that he wasn’t a complete liability out there was a huge help. He seemed much more aggressive trying to grab defensive rebounds than Drummond has so far this year. He finished with nine rebounds, which tied the team high.
- While Garland had it going the whole night, Donovan Mitchell was having an off shooting night. He was just 2-of-9 from three before knocking down three in a row in the closing minutes. As good as McCain was, it was too much firepower to overcome.
- The Sixers are back in action this Friday for some more NBA Cup action. Their second game of group stage is in Orlando against the Magic at 7 p.m. ET. Nick Nurse has already said that Joel Embiid and Paul George will be back in the lineup for that one.
