Sixers-Pistons takeaways: Monty Williams calls out officiating; Kelly Oubre’s helps slow down Cade Cunningham

DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons questioned if Joel Embiid is benefiting from questionable calls.

The 76ers showed a lot of composure. And Kelly Oubre Jr. did a solid job defending Cade Cunningham.

Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 114-106 victory over the Pistons Friday night in an NBA In-Season Tournament opener at Little Caesars Arena.

Here are the takeaways:

The reigning MVP finished with game highs of 33 points and 16 rebounds along with two blocks. He got to the foul line 19 times, making 16 shots. And the Pistons were upset with his number of attempts.

Embiid draws a lot of fouls by anticipating contact by swinging his arms through defenders as if he’s about to attempt a shot.

“Some of the stuff these guys are doing, they’re not shots,” Pistons coach Monty Williams said. “I’m going to go on record. These are not shots. We talk about it in our competition, transfer of information to head coaches meeting, like they are going to call this swinging the ball and hitting people. Like, that’s not a shot.

“And our guys are frustrated by it, and I can’t blame them. He’s good enough. And I talked to officials about it. I don’t think those are shots. You just wave your arms and hit somebody. And Joel’s tough enough to guard. We doubled him and we frustrated him in the first half.”

The Sixers couldn’t do right in the first half. They shot 30.2% from the field — including 28.6% on three-pointers. They even trailed by as many as 16 points before intermission.

However, they battled back from that deficit and led by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter.

“I think it speaks a little bit to our composure,” coach Nick Nurse said. " I think that’s the word I’d use. We don’t ever look like we’re too frantic about trying to find our next player, or our next shot, or our next action.

» READ MORE: Sixers escape Detroit with a victory in In-Season Tournament opener

“It kind of goes to the mentality of the game. I didn’t feel us getting very frantic even though they were kicking our backsides pretty good there.”

The Sixers were getting beat in every phase of the game for a long stretch of the first half. But they hung in there.

“I do like if this is a characteristic we have — and it seems like we have — I do like how well we play in the second half,” Nurse said. “It seems like we really come out and play the third and fourth quarters at a different level than maybe the first and second. I think that’s a good characteristic.”

The Sixers outscored the Pistons, 66-50, after intermission. They shot 55% in the last two quarters.

Cade Cunningham did whatever he wanted offensively to the Sixers early on.

The Pistons point guard made his first four shot attempts. Afterward, he made just 4 of 14 shots. Cunningham finished with 21 points.

Sixers shooting guard De’Anthony Melton initially had a tough time guarding the fourth-year player. However, Nic Batum and Kelly Oubre later drew the assignment.

“So I thought Kelly did a nice job on him,” Nurse said. “Nic did a nice job, Melt, all three of those guys went in there and went to work and just and we did make a few adjustments in the coverages as well. That helped us kind of stop the water flowing a little bit there, but those guys’ work, rate, and effort they gave was really helpful.”

» READ MORE: How does De’Anthony Melton plan to break his shooting slump? Keep shooting.

Oubre guarded him most of the time in the second half.

The Pistons tried to screen Oubre to create space for Cunningham. But the reserve forward did a solid job of fighting through the screens and forcing Cunningham into tougher looks.

“That’s what I bring to the game,” Oubre said of his defense. “That’s my bread and butter, so just trying to impact the game, and Cade definitely got off to a good start. I started on Ausar [Thompson], but Coach made that change to start the second half.

“Me guarding Cade and just wanted to pick him up full court, kind of make him uncomfortable a little bit because he’s such a talented player.”