With 2 wins and 4 losses, he fell from the first place in the league to the altar! The strongest offensive combination in the NBA turned out to be a data brush
One month after the start of the new NBA season, the situation in the East and West has gradually become clear. The Timberwolves and Thunder are two super dark horses in the West, and the Nuggets have had recent ups and downs but also bite the first group. Teams like the Suns, Lakers, and Clippers, as the season deepened, chemistry gradually established and quickly went on rectification, but the Warriors lost 8 games and 7 fell into trouble. On the eastern side, the Celtics, who have the super big four of Tatum + Brown + Porzingis + Holiday , won 12 of the opening 15 games, with a winning rate of 80%. Although the Bucks said goodbye to Holiday and Allen, their defense fell to outside the top 20 in the league, but they still ranked in the top three with their sharp offense. The Magic are arguably the biggest dark horses in the East, second in the league in defensive efficiency, the fewest points per game conceded in the league, and the Heat, who have had no goals in the offseason, and with the outbreak of Butler and Bam Adebayo, the team is also in the first group.
In the offseason, the NBA paid the most attention to Harden's whereabouts, the Clippers and the 76ers after 4 months of extreme pulling, the 76ers finally released him, and the 76ers got Batum and Covington, which really improved the overall strength of the front. Just after Harden came to the Clippers, the Clippers first experienced a wave of 6 consecutive losses (Harden played 5 games), and at the same time, the 76ers won consecutive games and were invincible. In addition to losing to the Bucks by 1 point in the opening game, he won 8 consecutive victories and rushed all the way to the first place in the league! At that time, Harden naturally became the target of ridicule, and the Philadelphia team reporter bluntly said that it was Harden who delayed Maxey's growth and delayed the team's progress. Even the new coach Nurse is saying that we can win with Harden, and we are as strong as we are without him.
When Wei Shao decided to play off the bench, the Clippers quickly set up the framework of Harden + Leonard leading the team to start, George + Wei Shao leading the team to the bench, although everyone's data has declined, but the team quickly returned to the right track with a wave of 3 consecutive wins, what about the 76ers? In the last 6 games, the 76ers have a record of 2 wins and 4 losses, falling from first in the league all the way to fourth in the East. The Pacers couldn't beat the offense, were avenged by the Celtics, defeated the Hawks and the Nets, and then lost to the Nets in overtime, and in the latest game, Embiid was overloaded, and the 76ers defeated the Timberwolves. Embiid averaged 31.9 points, 11.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game this season, and Maxey averaged 26.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game.
According to U.S. media statistics, Embiid and Maxey are the league's most scoring duo, higher than Antetokounmpo and Lillard. This season, the 76ers have a 7-0 record against teams with a win percentage of less than 50 percent (including 50 percent) and a record of 3 wins and 5 losses against teams with a win percentage of more than 50 percent. Typical bullying is afraid of the hard, and it is not strong when it is strong. This is also directly reflected in the team's two cores: Embiid and Maxey. Embiid's stats are gorgeous, but advanced stats don't stand up to scrutiny: this season, the 76ers played crucial games (within 5 points in the last 5 minutes), with a 1-4 record, of which Embiid shot 30.8%, 136th in the league, and lost 5.0 points on the field, 208th in the league.
As in past few seasons, Embiid is still not good at playing key moments, and when it comes to deciding the outcome of the game, the referees will not give you a chance to make free throws. Compared with Embiid, Maxey's growth channel this season has indeed skyrocketed with Harden's departure and has become the absolute core of the team. However, the average output of 1.8 points per game at critical moments + 28.6% shooting rate is not as good as Embiid. Two examples, playing the league's best defensive Timberwolves, the opponent doesn't give you the opportunity to break fast and mess around, Maxey only scored 16 points in 7 of 19 in the whole game, he couldn't break the bag, and the confrontation was also very difficult, and he could only steal chickens in the connecting section to score. The same is true for the Celtics, who scored 20 points on 6-of-15 shooting, and when it came to the critical moment in the fourth quarter, various iron hits missed, and there were three non-sticks.
In fact, in the past few years, because of Harden's support, Maxey has indeed grown significantly, but he can't reach the point of being the boss of the team. Similar to Poole and Hiro, he can play the spoiler, and he also has a certain amount of scoring explosiveness, that's all. The point is that Maxey is often targeted on the point list on the defensive end, and for this reason, the 76ers basically let Melton and Beverley seamlessly connect to plug Maxey. When Maxey reaches his contract year, he naturally pays more attention to statistics, such as the offensive battle against the Pacers and soaring by 50 points. But like Embiid, both of them have a lot of data injection, and the data brushed out on the weak team is meaningless.
Embiid wants to be the MVP and the scoring champion for a second time, and he must also know that he leads the team, and the playoff ceiling is very low. Maxey wants a super cap salary, Embiid will be the norm when he goes back-to-back or encounters some strong opponents this season, and Maxey lacks Embiid's containment and will slowly show his stuff. The NBA's strongest offensive combination is just a data brush after all.