Instant observations: Sixers fall to Spurs despite Victor Wembanyama injury

Big man good If you could simply look past the score and the fact that their All-NBA candidate guard was as bad as he has been all season, there were some real Sixers positives to take away from this one. Philadelphia got decent performances from three of its most important players and hung tough against an elite team in ways that feel sustainable in a playoff setting. Monday’s much-anticipated matchup between Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama did not disappoint in the first half, and it was the elder statesmen who went into halftime with the scoring advantage.

While Wembanyama almost exclusively guarded Embiid during their shared time on the floor, the Sixers juggled the matchups on San Antonio’s MVP candidate, letting Embiid play higher-impact possessions against him in short bursts. While there were some moments of success for Wembanyama, including an and-one layup in the first half, Embiid’s strength advantage pushed his matchup into safe areas inside the arc, forcing turnovers and missed shots to kickstart the Sixers’ offense. Embiid held up his end of the bargain on the other end, too, despite his inability to make threes with Wembanyama lurking to contest.

He had a couple of big boy moments inside the arc, driving Wembanyama close to the rim before moving him with a pump fake and hitting a quick jumper. Pick-and-rolls were all the rage for Philadelphia, and they did a good job of mixing up the who and the how of those looks, freeing up Embiid for some practice jumpers around the free-throw line. His offensive rebounding was as good as it has been all year, with Embiid getting good early position to create five second-chance possessions throughout the game.

While Maxey is usually the man at the controls of the pick-and-roll game, Paul George got a surprising number of reps alongside Embiid, including on pick-and-rolls that flowed out of an initial pindown screen on George’s man. That was due in part to an irregular sub schedule for the big man — he came out of the game early after taking a hard fall contesting a Wembanyama drive, only to return late in the first and play the entire second quarter. It certainly helps that George’s driving ability has been back in a major way, giving the Sixers real reason to use him as the jumbo ballhandler in ball screens.