The Philadelphia 76ers dropped yet another game Monday night, this time a 106-89 loss to the Miami Heat, despite having both Joel Embiid and Paul George in the lineup. It puts the Sixers at 2-11 on the year, a dismal start for a team that was built with the intentions of playing deep into June.
Injuries have certainly played a part, George has missed six games, Embiid’s total is already at 10 and Tyrese Maxey has been out for the last six games with a strained right hamstring, though he’s expected to make a return sometime this week. Philly’s Big Three has yet to share the court together. But that aside, no one expected the Sixers — a team that committed a ton of money to build a championship-level roster this summer — to be this bad.
After Monday’s loss, the Sixers had a team meeting to address the early-season struggles. During this meeting in Miami, Maxey reportedly called out Embiid for being late to team activities, per ESPN.
“In the meeting, Maxey challenged Embiid to be on time to team activities, calling out the former league MVP about being late “for everything” and how it impacts the locker room, from other players to the coaching staff.”
Embiid received the comments well, per the report, and also chimed in to say there’s times where he “is confused about what the 76ers are attempting to execute sometimes on the court.” This was coupled with several other Sixers players voicing to coach Nick Nurse that they wanted to be coached harder, and wanted players to attack practice with more “purpose.”
In regards to Embiid being “confused” about what the team is trying to accomplish, that makes sense when you consider that the Sixers rank 30th on offense. The injuries to their All-Stars certainly impact that, and even when George and Embiid or Maxey have shared the floor for a short period of time, the offense has been stagnant as there has been zero chemistry built since George and other key role players joined the team this summer.
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From the sounds of it, it feels like this meeting was needed even when most of Philadelphia’s struggles can be explained just for the simple fact that injuries have wrecked what could’ve been a strong start. It’s still early and, in a weak East, the team still has plenty of time to turn things around, as our Sam Quinn wrote Monday night.
LOS ANGELES — Steph Curry and James Harden stepped onto the floor Monday night, waiting for tipoff, headed to the opposite side of the court from the other. Each stood alone waiting, the two most prolific 3-point shooters in NBA history, waiting to add to their mind-boggling totals.
The smoke still lingered above the floor from the pre-show theatrics before the Clippers hosted the Warriors as each waited to get going. So did the talk of history now that Harden had, a day earlier, notched his spot as the .
Two-thousand nine-hundred seventy-five: That’s how many 3s — across a career of All-Star Games, scoring titles, an MVP, and so many individual moments of greatness — Harden had drained. He’d passed Ray Allen the day before to cement his place at No. 2 on that list.
Only Curry loomed over him, with a number as absurd as his talent: 3,782. A stunning 807 more 3-pointers made than the guy behind him on the list, the one facing him on the floor as the game got underway.
This connection seemed to wait in every aspect of the buildup of the game. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has been asked about Harden’s record, and he’d answered with the double difficulty of stopping Harden’s 3-point prowess coupled with his penchant for getting to the free-throw line.
“That’s what you’re dealing with when you play James Harden,” Kerr said. “He’s going to make some shots, and he’s a great player, obviously, a Hall of Fame player, but if he goes to the line 12 or 13 times it’s hard to win that game.”
Clippers coach Ty Lue had been asked if, given this new hue of history attached to his star player, people really think of Harden as a 3-point shooter.
“I don’t think so,” Lue said. “You think of the stepback and all the scoring, but you don’t think of second all time in 3-pointers made.”
Should we? the reporter asked.
Lue laughed. “I guess so, now. Kind of like LeBron coming in as a pass-first guy, but now he’s the all-time leading scorer. Kind of like the same thing.”
Back on the floor, the game underway, Harden and Curry’s places on the list were hard to shake. History had happened into each other the day after Harden made his.
As if on cue, Harden scored first blood, taking just 130 seconds into the game to stop behind the arc, fire, and add again to this tally: No. 2,975.
Curry gave a little nod. Then he marched right down the floor and, seconds later, answered with his own rejoinder: No. 3,783.
In the end, this night would belong to Harden and the Clippers, who held on for a 102-99 victory despite a spirited comeback attempt from Curry and Golden State. Harden dished out 16 assists but scored only 12 points on 4-of-15 from the field and 2-of-6 from deep. Curry led all scorers with 26 points while making six of his 15 3-point attempts.
Still, as the best 3-point shooters of all time, at least by volume, fought it out, there remained a separation between them. Even Harden’s new-found link to Curry cast a light on their divide — one deeper and wider than the 811 made 3s that separated them after Monday night’s game.
There’s great irony in Harden being matched up with Curry one day after the Beard made his own remarkable history. Such it is with GOATs: They can shine so bright they dull everything around them, even other stars.
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For all Harden’s greatness, he has no ring. He is not a Top 10 (or better) player of all time. He does not sit at the level of awe-inspiring dominance his 3-point shooting contemporary does, despite Harden’s hard work, his silky and now seemingly timeless offensive gifts, nor his tremendous job so far this season putting the Clippers on his back and carrying them to a better than .500 record.
But at the start of Curry’s rise, it was Harden who some thought should cast a shadow over him.
Harden was an All-Star before Steph. He was Sixth Man of the Year for the Thunder before Steph ever garnered a single MVP vote. Harden was in an NBA Finals before anyone believed the Golden State Warriors, then perhaps the most futile team in American sports, could even dare to aspire to such an appearance.
And when Curry finally broke through during that 2014-15 season, many — including fellow players — scoffed at the idea of Curry somehow being better than Harden as a player. We forget now, but back then NBA players were so put out when Curry was awarded the 2015 MVP award that the National Basketball Players Association decided to launch its own award — a correction against those silly media members who had given Curry that vaunted honor.
The NBPA’s choice that same season for its inaugural, short-lived MVP award?
James Harden.
Almost 10 years ago, the Steph Curry Era began with real doubt. A couple of years before Curry broke through, I’d had dinner with a rising NBA player — he’s now a superstar — and we’d wandered into a sports bar in his town on an off night.
On the TV was a Warriors-Knicks game, and this young guy, Steph Curry, balling out. He proceeded to drop 54 points in the Garden, and the player I was with sat an marvelled at the performance over beers.
“That dude’s going to be special,” the player told me.
Only a few years later, when Curry actually was special, he wanted nothing to do with revisiting that night. He bristled at questions of Curry, a theme that would recur for several years, when top players’ handlers, agents and friends would try to plant Curry’s not-that-great narratives.
That’s all ancient history now, washed away by Curry’s very-much accepted and beyond reproach greatness. The same way jealousies and pettiness toward LeBron James, which peaked his first year in Miami, have faded. The same way Michael Jordan’s foes went from enemies on the court to friends, or at least admirers, off of it.
Winning meets all-time greatness changes hearts, minds and history.
There’s a greatness to Harden, too, one his friend Kevin Durant summed up after he got to No. 2 on that list.
“Congrats, JH, on reaching an amazing accomplishment,” Durant said in a social media post. “All the work that you put in has paid off. You inspire so many people around the world with how you play. Been a great teammate, a great friend.”
It’s just overshadowed by the one player on that 3-point shooting list he’ll never catch.
Even in the afterglow of Harden’s moment, it’s still Curry’s world.
Think of the best starts in NBA history. They tend to look pretty similar. The Golden State Warriors kicked off the 2015-16 season with 24 consecutive wins, They were a defending champion with an MVP hitting his prime in Stephen Curry. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls kicked off their season with a 41-3 stretch. They had Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
Most of the time, we’re talking about teams with championship track records and legendary players. Often, those starts follow the acquisition of a major new piece. The 2003-04 Lakers started 18-3 after adding Gary Payton and Karl Malone to Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. When the 2016-17 Warriors added Kevin Durant, they lost on opening night and then lost only two more regulation games before Christmas. The story was similar for the 2019-20 Lakers. They lost on opening night and then won 24 of their next 26 with Anthony Davis alongside LeBron James. Most of the teams that start out this well recently added Hall of Famers, and the rest already had them.
That’s what makes what’s happening in Cleveland right now so unique. Donovan Mitchell is the only player on the Cavaliers roster to ever make an All-NBA Team. He’s only done so once, and it was a Second-Team pick, not a First-Team selection. They didn’t add a notable player this offseason. In fact, they barely added anyone. They have played 3,600 minutes so far this season. They have thus far allocated 3,563 of those minutes to players who were on their roster last season. The remaining 37 have gone to Jaylon Tyson, a first-round rookie that has played 26 minutes, Luke Travers, a two-way player from Australia who had previously been on their Summer League team that has played nine minutes, and their lone veteran free-agent addition of the offseason, JT Thor, who has played two minutes. This is more or less the same group of players that went 48-34 a season ago. To win only 48 games this season, Cleveland would have to play sub-.500 basketball the rest of the way.
The notable change here came on the bench. Kenny Atkinson replaced JB Bickerstaff as Cleveland’s head coach, and suddenly, the Cavaliers are unbeatable. The question here is why? What has Kenny Atkinson done to take a good team and make it perfect? Why exactly are the 15-0 Cavaliers so dominant?
Now seems like a perfect opportunity to answer that question because the Cavaliers are about to face the biggest test of their young season. On Tuesday, they will travel to Boston to face the defending champs. Cavaliers vs. Celtics has become one of the biggest November NBA games in recent memory. While it would be unfair to draw meaningful conclusions from a single game, this game does represent a great opportunity for Cleveland to measure itself against the best of the best. We’ll have a much cleaner idea of how real the Cavaliers are after they’ve faced off with the Celtics, so in preparation for that heavyweight clash, let’s dive into what has made this Cleveland team so special thus far this season.
So… why are the Cavaliers winning so much? Well, for starters, it’s really hard to find a weakness here. They’re technically below average in rebound rate, but that’s due to a conscious choice to eschew offensive rebounding. They rank eighth in defense rebounding rate. They’re generating 2.7 more turnovers on defense than they’re giving up on offense, and they’re taking one more free throw per game on average than their opponents. They’re borderline invincible late in games thus far with a staggering plus-70.8 clutch net rating and a 7-0 clutch record. You have to look hard to find flaws here. They’re just about as good as they’ve ever been at the things that were already going well, and they’ve improved significantly in the areas that weren’t. There’s no simpler way to explain that than through their offense and defense.
DONOVAN MITCHELL GAME-WINNER 🕷️@cavs go perfect on the week and remain undefeated at 7-0 ⚔️#LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/ubG0Wathzi
— FanDuel Sports Network Cleveland (@FanDuelSN_CLE) November 3, 2024 The Cavaliers of the past few seasons were a defense-first team that tried just about everything to jumpstart a sluggish offense. Since drafting Evan Mobley, they have ranked fifth, first and seventh in defense. Right now, they again rank seventh. The difference is that unlike in the past, the offense is dominant. The Cavaliers currently have the best offensive rating in the NBA at 122.1, which would represent the second-best figure over a full season in league history behind last year’s Celtics.
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How is their offense this good? If we were to distill it down to a single word, that word would be balance. No Cavalier plays more than 31.1 minutes per game, and none of them rank in the top 60 in the NBA in terms of touches per game, according to NBA.com tracking data. Is some of that due to blowouts getting their best players off of the floor early? Sure… but as of this writing, two-way wing Brandon Boston Jr. of the Pelicans is touching the ball more than any Cavalier. Amongst the top three Cavaliers, though, the distribution is remarkably even. Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley all touch the ball between 61.1 and 57.9 times per game. That represents meaningful sacrifice on Mitchell’s part. He was above 79 touches per game a season ago. Now? He’s taking his fewest shots per game since his rookie season.
That communal mindset has unlocked Garland and Mobley. Mobley is averaging a career-high 18.1 points per game. Garland’s volume numbers haven’t jumped, but his efficiency has skyrocketed. He’s making 58.2% of his 2-pointers, seven percentage points above any other season in his career, and 45.5% of his 3-pointers, six percentage points above his previous high. Life is easier for all three of them because they’re all pulling their weight. The offense is remarkably egalitarian, but not necessarily in the ways you’d expect.
Cleveland plays fast. The Cavaliers rank seventh in overall pace and fourth in offensive pace. Yet for a team based on balance and speed, there isn’t a lot of ball-movement. Only the Mavericks and Rockets make fewer passes per game than the Cavaliers do. That doesn’t necessarily match the eye test, and it conflicts with the offensive principles Atkinson brought from his previous stop in Golden State. The Warriors lead the NBA in passes almost every year. Yet despite that low passing volume, only four teams are generating more points off of assists per game. The Cavaliers rank near the middle of the pack in both potential assists and secondary assists. How are they doing this on a such a low number of total passes?
It’s because the passes they do make are crisp and decisive. Cleveland doesn’t pass much because the bulk of its offensive setup is happening in two places. Cleveland’s speed is most evident off of the ball. NBA.com tracking data shows that the average Cleveland offensive player moves faster than the average player on all but six other teams.
That movement is designed to maximize what is happening on the ball. Only the Thunder, the Grizzlies and the Trail Blazers drive more times per game than the Cavaliers do. Here’s the catch: none of them are shooting better than 50.1% on drive shots. The Cavaliers are at a preposterous 57.5%, a figure that comfortably breaks the tracking era record. Speaking of tracking-era records: Cleveland is generating 7.9 assists per game out of drives. This is drive-and-kick basketball at its finest. Cleveland ranks fourth in the NBA in points in the paint, but is also lapping the field in terms of 3-point percentage. They’re making 41.9% of their triples. Nobody else is making more than 39%. Garland, Mitchell and Mobley break down the defense and create shots at the rim. If defenses overcommit to stopping them, Cleveland’s array of shooters kills them for it.
