Sixers Bell Ringer: Philadelphia edged by Knicks for ninth straight loss

Philadelphia fans got the best of both worlds with a competitive basketball game and a better chance of the Sixers keeping their first-round pick.

Sixers Bell Ringer Season Standings:
Tyrese Maxey – 16
Jared McCain – 8
Joel Embiid – 8
Paul George – 7
Guerschon Yabusele – 4
Kelly Oubre Jr – 3
Ricky Council IV – 2
KJ Martin – 2
Justin Edwards – 2
Quentin Grimes – 2
Adem Bona – 1
Jared Butler – 1
No One – 1

The Sixers did not get a victory tonight in New York, which is ultimately for the best in terms of lottery combination purposes. However, they did get a moral victory, which is a nice bone to throw the fans (and humble bloggers) still tuning into these games. Philadelphia battled the Knicks a lot better than what we saw recently against some of the (other) dregs of the league. They came back from a 19-point first half deficit to briefly take a four-point lead with a few minutes left, but nine straight points from Jalen Brunson propelled the Knicks to the 110-105 win. Speaking of nine straight, that’s nine straight losses for the Sixers, but let’s at least acknowledge the hard work tonight with Bell Ringer nominees.

Paul George: 25 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 7 turnovers

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Paul gave up being Podcast P for the rest of the season to focus on getting healthy and winning basketball games. I don’t know how much correlation there was, but he definitely had a better on-court performance in New York. I loved to see him out there being active and using his length to jump passing lanes. George made Andre Drummond look semi-useful with a couple feeds down the lane for dunks. After being cold shooting early, he caught fire in the second half with 17 of his points coming post-locker room break, including the big three to cut it to 96-95 late in the game. This was a fair facisimile of the version of George the Sixers had been anticipating heading into the season.

Kelly Oubre Jr.: 27 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

There’s not much these days Sixers-related that still puts a smile on my face, but the games where Oubre is out there hustling his tail off and chirping at the benches after big shots is one of them. Like in last spring’s playoff series, Kelly was guarding hard and diving for loose balls. He was the Sixers’ most efficient scorer, shooting 9-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-6 from three. Oubre was the only guy with an offensive pulse in the first half, scoring 19 points to keep the Sixers at least somewhat in the game. Then when he hit that big three to put the Sixers back ahead, 100-98, I illogically wanted Philadelphia to win the game in that moment.

Tyrese Maxey: 30 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover

Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images

With his shooting hand taped up, Maxey shot a gruesome 0-of-10 from three on the night. But he kept being aggressive on the both ends of the court, and tallied 22 points and four assists in the second half to help lead the comeback charge. Tyrese didn’t hit any traditional threes but earned a couple three-point plays the old-fashioned way via drives in the third quarter. He had a very nice drive-and-kick to find Justin Edwards for a three in the fourth quarter, and his floating banker to give the Sixers back the lead at 97-96 was a textbook case of an incredibly fast player using change of pace to his advantage.