Inside Sixers: ‘Old-school’ basketball, Nico Batum’s special skill, and more from a clunky stretch

NEW YORK — Kelly Oubre Jr. said Sunday night “felt like a ‘90s game. Old-school, straight East Coast basketball.”

Buddy Hield expected a stat about the Knicks’ point total to be from “like, 1970-something or 1980-something.”

Nico Batum said it brought him “back to my Euroleague days.”

The 79-73 slugfest at Madison Square Garden was a throwback of some kind. Yet given the way the Sixers have stumbled without reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid — and, recently, All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey — they will take any brand of victory in a tight race for playoff seeding with 18 regular-season games to go.

“That’s a really good [defensive] performance against a really good team,” veteran guard Kyle Lowry said.

» READ MORE: Sixers top Knicks in offensive slog to snap three-game losing skid

It stemmed from better game-plan discipline, coach Nick Nurse said, with 21 forced turnovers illustrating the Sixers can still be productive defensively even without the anchor Embiid and perimeter harassers De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington. Lowry added that uptick in focus — and “open and honest” communication — had carried from film sessions to huddles since Friday’s disastrous first half against the New Orleans Pelicans. And Oubre hinted that Maxey could be back Tuesday, after he remained in concussion protocol Sunday but was healthy enough to be on the Sixers’ bench.

Before a rematch at The Garden, here are some more moments that have peppered the Sixers’ clunky stretch since the All-Star break.

Feb. 23 against the Cleveland Cavaliers was a scheduled rest day for Nico Batum, who was coming off a hamstring injury while the Sixers played the second night of a back-to-back. Yet the veteran forward was still in uniform and designated as active for one specific scenario — if his team needed a late inbound pass in a down-to-the-wire game.

Nurse made that decision after the Sixers’ win in Cleveland less than two weeks prior, when a turnover on an inbound pass by Hield (then in his third game as a Sixer) helped spark the Cavaliers’ late charge before the Sixers held on for a 123-121 win.

“After that game,” Batum told The Inquirer, “[Nurse] told me, ‘Next time you’re out, you dress anyway, just in case.’”

Delivering that pass to start a possession might seem like a routine assignment. But Batum noted that he has five high-pressure seconds to read a swarming defense, then deliver an on-time strike to one of four options.

“It’s not that easy, but I’ve been doing it,” Batum said. “… My whole entire career, for 15 years, since I was with the Blazers I was doing it.”

While on the bench throughout that Feb. 23 game, Batum tried to stay mentally locked in by pretending the score was tied. He exhaled when Hield hit a three-pointer to put the Sixers up eight with less than a minute to play, thinking “we’re good.” But when Maxey fouled Darius Garland on a three-pointer with 28.7 seconds left, Batum said Nurse spotted him on the bench and said, “You ready?”

Batum got the ball in to Maxey, forcing the Cavaliers to foul an 87.1% free-throw shooter. And then Batum immediately subbed back out.

“I got three seconds,” Batum said while glancing at the box score. “I’m plus-2. Great job, Nico.”

When reserve guard Cameron Payne joined the Sixers at the trade deadline, he could not keep his No. 15 because it is retired to honor Hal Greer.

So the veteran guard sent a group text to his family for input on an alternative. And before Payne could list the four numbers he was considering, “everybody said 22.”

“All right, cool,” Payne thought to himself. “Say less. This is what we’re doing.”

Why such an enthusiastic response? That is the first number Payne wore as a child, creating a “Deuce, Deuce” nickname. Though he later wore No. 1 during his college career at Murray State, he went back to 22 when drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015.

But when Payne later joined the Phoenix Suns for the 2020 bubble restart, choosing a new number (15) was part of the fresh start to revitalize his career after falling out of the NBA. He stuck with it when he joined the Milwaukee Bucks for the start of this season.

Now, “Deuce Deuce” is back to his roots.

Before the Sixers’ Feb. 23 win against Cleveland, assistant coach Bobby Jackson sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Hield at his locker for a last-minute film session. The sharpshooting guard was in catch-up mode following last month’s trade, needing quick dissections of his shot selection and teammates’ tendencies.

Jackson, however, was a familiar face delivering all that new information. He was a player development coach during Hield’s time with the Sacramento Kings. Fellow current Sixers assistants Rico Hines and Bryan Gates were also on the Kings’ staff at that time.

“It makes it an easy adjustment,” Hield said. “[Those are] guys I can go and relate to and talk to, especially when I’m trying to figure things out.”

Nurse, meanwhile, also is still figuring out how to best deploy Hield, who had been shooting 35% from the floor in the nine games since the All-Star break before Sunday. Against the Knicks, however, Hield was sharp in shifting to a bench role, scoring 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from long range and adding seven rebounds and three assists.

Shake Milton made his way down a line of Sixers staffers during Sunday’s pregame warm-ups, offering another round of hugs and hellos.

The former Sixers guard realistically knows those colleagues better than the Knicks, whom he just joined while playing for three teams during the past five weeks.

Milton began the season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team he signed with as a free agent last summer and that on Sunday held the second spot in the Western Conference standings. He was then traded to the lowly Detroit Pistons at the February deadline and, after playing in four games, bought out of his contract. He joined the Knicks last week, but did not play against the Sixers Sunday.

“[It’s] been pretty hectic, pretty crazy,” Milton told The Inquirer from his new locker room. “I swear, I’ve been living out of a suitcase for the past month or so. I feel like I’ve got stuff everywhere on the map.”

After spending his first five NBA seasons in Philly, Milton said this whirlwind has been a lesson in the league’s business side. But he believes he is a fit with the Knicks, describing coach Tom Thibodeau as “tough and very detail-oriented” in a way that reminds Milton of his college coach (and former Sixers leader) Larry Brown.

Milton is also captivated by the mystique of living in New York City, and in playing for one of the most iconic brands in sports.

“Just being a Knick,” Milton said, “it’s wild.”