The Philadelphia 76ers recently earned their first win of the season, and the visiting Detroit Pistons are hoping to follow suit when the teams meet Wednesday.
After a pair of early-season losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors, the Sixers nipped the Indiana Pacers 118-114 in overtime on Sunday. Tyrese Maxey scored 10 of his 45 points in overtime, as the dynamic guard recovered from two poor games to begin his season.
“He was unbelievable, obviously,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said.
Maxey is shooting just 34.9 percent from the floor (23.7 percent from 3-point range) through the first three games. He has been forced into a heavy load offensively while the team continues to wait for Joel Embiid and Paul George to recover from knee injuries. Embiid and George are set to miss their fourth straight game to begin the season.
“It was a good win,” Maxey said. “It feels good to get our first one, but again, it’s just one, but I think I’m more proud of the way we played and we fought and scratched and didn’t give up.”
Meanwhile, the Pistons have lost their first four games on a season-opening, six-game stretch against Eastern Conference playoff teams from a season ago. They held a one-point lead heading into the fourth quarter against the Miami Heat on Monday before ultimately dropping a 106-98 decision.
“It’s a long year. We’ve played really, really good teams,” guard Cade Cunningham said. “I think this is good for us. It’s raised our level of play. Obviously, 0-4 is not how we planned on it going. There is still a lot of time to get it going. We’ll get it going. I have no doubt in that.”
Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff was encouraged after his team allowed a season-low 106 points, including just 42 in the second half.
“Everything for us starts with the defensive end of the floor, and I thought we did a great job of getting stops,” Bickerstaff said.
Wednesday’s game will mark Tobias Harris’ return to Philadelphia. The veteran forward spent the previous 5 1/2 seasons with the 76ers, including some of the most productive campaigns of his career.
At the moment, though, Harris is focused on helping the Pistons turn things around.
“Four games, obviously, lot of positives we can take from it, but we definitely have to clean up and make the easy play,” Harris said. “We’re having a lot of (unfortunate) times where we (allow them to) make good runs. That hurts momentum. We have to alter that.”
On the other end, Philadelphia center Andre Drummond will be facing his former team as well. Drummond was a dominant rebounding force for Detroit for the first seven-plus seasons of his NBA career.
He’s now in his second stint with the Sixers, helping to fill in for Embiid. Through three games, he is averaging 10 points, 13 rebounds and two steals per contest.
“It’s all about timing,” Drummond said after registering six steals in the last two games. “When I see the guard come off, they usually try to see what I’m going to do first, whether I’m going to be aggressive or not. Once they take that lazy dribble, I go for it.”
The Sixers are 22-3 in their last 25 games against the Pistons, including a four-game sweep last season. Philadelphia won those four games by eight, 18, 18 and 32 points.
