The Sixers Made a Huge Statement with that Win...

Sixers answered some key questions against Charlotte, and I think that I can say it. That was the biggest win of the season. What's going on, everybody? Christian Pedersen back with another episode of Sixers Digest here to recap last night's game. Let's talk about it. Let's hit that big, sweet, beautiful graphic. Tell them what happened, Mr. Computer. Sixers won without their stars. Now, not without all of their stars, but minus LeBron and Joel Embiid. The Sixers got it done in dramatic fashion and continue to prove that they got that dog in them and are always capable of the comebacks. But let's break down the numbers as well because some really interesting trends are starting to develop, a.k.a. Tyrese Maxey is turning into the best player in the NBA. As always, if you want to like, subscribe, comment, share, follow Sixers Digest, it's here to bring you daily content with Sean and I covering all things pre-, post-, and in-between games. The numbers, if you will allow me to break them down for you from last night's game, overwhelmingly positive in my take. Now, this is a big full screen of graphics. Thank you, as always, to our graphics people. If you want to head over to DigestSports.com, you can have these more in-depth. I have three key takeaways from last night's numbers. Number one being Tyrese Maxey's season-high points. We will get to more on Maxey in a second. On the plus minus, my boy Adem Bona. He had been as low as a minus 22, I think, earlier this season, and he was in the plus, so that whole starting lineup found a way to get it done. And my third one is the bench. It's a five-man bench. We played a full 10-man rotation last night. We got minutes from all sorts of people that were... We're getting involved, and that was a team effort, and I can't help but smile at the concept that we are getting, or we got some, I think, awesome feedback that no matter what you want to say about, oh my gosh, it required an 11-0 run to close out the game, or that it was only against, no, man, maybe. If you really need to argue in the comment section about the nitty-gritty of that win having all these disclaimer factors, whatnot, sure, great. I think that that one showed, though, as much as the huge comeback against Cleveland did or as much as winning on the road here or there, as much as any one of these other wins have shown the template or whatever, last night's, I think, showed that we don't... We need to panic about the not having a true concept of like a backup center. Should we still keep it in mind? Yeah. Okay. Sure. Great. I'm not saying that all of my fears were assuaged and that we're going to go ahead and just say that Adem Bona is the next greatest thing since sliced bread. But last night could have gone so singularly bad that it was one where it's like, okay, we just lost by 20 and we're throwing out the same disclaimers that you might want to use to minimize the win. Instead, we won that game. We came up with a clutch 11-0 run at the end. We kept it close for a lot of the time. I just, we're not going, I said it in the pregame video of, we're not necessarily, like this is not reflective of who the Sixers are going to be in the postseason. We're not going to do this same style and level of load management. It's not going to just be a reality for anything other than certain chunks of the regular season. And we are faced at a crossroads. And we're going to see how this game was going to go. And it was either going to be, okay, we might just be in for nine or 10, losses on these back-to-backs and have to shrug our shoulders or we're gonna see if this actually works because we've only ever done the hypotheticals about it and to me this showed that it actually worked. Now it certainly helps when Tyrese Maxey does this 38 points but I think that this kind of also in as much as you could Again, I've tried to play both sides here. You could say that last night was Tyrese Maxey bailing out our lack of a center position. I think this also shows, though, that when you clear out the deck a little bit and you get, you know, LeBron is sitting and AD is sitting and you've got to have the other pieces out there that we're only removing depth at the center. And we are not necessarily removing overall depth. Does that make sense? Like Maxie is so good and he's still got Robin, AKA VJ Edgecombe and Jalen Brown was still out there and looking like it's not going to necessarily be a season ending. Patellar tendon, anything going on there. And Anthony Simons was still looking good. And Adam Bona was serviceable at center and KCP. And how did that like, that's what I'm saying. It's like, I, I, The headlines going into last night would have had you believe that this was us gearing up for just like, oh my god, the Sixers are playing. The scrubbiest lineup that has ever been assembled in franchise history. Maybe that's me being hyperbolic, but when you saw that the graphics said that they were missing their stars, and so even the chat GPT function on our digest sports thing thinks that last night was us not playing with our main pieces. Instead, it's just a different version of Sixers basketball, but it's one where... It clears out some room for Maxie to absolutely shine. Following that, with Anfernee Simons. Also, another amazing game. Sean did a video on him yesterday, and actually the day before. I was going to say, I said going into the season that we were going to have, like, the Anfernee Simons game. He could go off for 40. You guys just kept replying in the comment, dude's a walking bucket, dude's a walking bucket, dude's a walking bucket. He might be the. Can I say it? That he might actually be the best pickup of the offseason if you evaluate money spent versus buckets picked up. An absolute, another great performance. Maxie and Edgecombe looking together. They are a great one-two combo. The shooting percentages, the assists, the point. That's what I'm saying. I think that my main takeaway from the game last night is that we have the we don't need to panic and go make some over reactionary decision about bringing in a new big can we opt for improvement can we get better at the depth at that one singular position yeah sure i'm not going to die on the hill of no don't get another guy we we had like we had Huck Porty we lost it was not that We went without it, and there just wasn't another one. You guys want somebody new. I hear you. I understand you. But I think last night showed us that the Sixers have a viable format to win heavy load management games that doth not require us to go out and spend capital that we don't necessarily have the flexibility to spend. And can then allow us to really wait until there is a really true, urgent, tangible need at some point later in the season to add that finishing piece to really top things off for the championship run. I think it also showed us last night continued versions of the fight that this team has in it is unbelievable. And to be down and close out on an 11-0 run that required shots at the free throw line, thriving in the paint. doing all of the different varieties of things that were required. I mean, how are you going to not say we're the best team in basketball? That's what I will end on. Thank you very much for tuning in to another episode. I hope you guys have a great rest of your day. I will be back later today with more content. Sean's got some coming as well. So that's why I always say like, subscribe, comment, share, follow all those other YouTube buttons. Until next time, go Sixers. We'll talk to you guys soon.