Sixers vs. Suns takeaways: Kelly Oubre Jr. signing paying off; Joel Embiid’s scoring dominance hard to match
With another 25 points on Saturday, Oubre has already outplayed his one-year, $2.8 million contract. Meanwhile, Embiid has yet to score fewer than 24 points in a game this season.
Kelly Oubre Jr. is the 76ers’ best free-agent signing for some time.
The Oubre, Tobias Harris, and Tyrese Maxey grouping to open quarters is effective. And there’s only a small group of players leaguewide able to to emulate Joel Embiid.
Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 112-100 victory over the Phoenix Suns Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.
Here are the takeaways:
Oubre’s impact
Oubre has already outplayed the one-year, $2.8 million contract he signed with the Sixers on Sept. 26.
The small forward produced yet another dominant performance Saturday, scoring 25 points on 10-for-18 shooting — including three made three-pointers — in his second straight start.
» READ MORE: Why Nick Nurse wants to see more aggression from Tyrese Maxey despite a hot start
The 27-year-old is averaging 21.0 points and 44.8% shooting on three-pointers through five games for the Sixers (4-1).
Oubre during training camp said that his goal was to become a standout by just fitting in. However, not even the confident player imagined that things would be as seamless for him.
“But I don’t have many expectations because obviously everything is what it is, and, you know, I’m just trying to take it day by day, man,” Oubre said. “I know that I’m very hungry to prove myself in this league. Obviously, you know this summer was very stressful to me for me. So I had a lot of pent up energy for this season already built up.”
Oubre didn’t have suitors in free agency despite averaging a career-high 20.3 points last season with the Charlotte Hornets. That led to his signing the one-year deal with the Sixers.
“I think that me transitioning to a new situation couldn’t have been more seamless because of coach [Nick Nurse], you know because of the supporting cast members and also just my work ethic.”
Oubre, Harris, and Maxey pairing
Nurse usually has Harris and Maxey in at the start of the second and fourth quarters, depending the circumstances. On Saturday, he added Oubre to that lineup in the second.
Patrick Beverley and Paul Reed joined the trio in the second quarter. They opened with a 6-0 run to take a 31-24 advantage 1 minute, 53 seconds into the quarter.
» READ MORE: Kelly Oubre Jr., Tobias Harris step up as Sixers pull away from Suns to extend winning streak to four games
But at the start of the fourth quarter, Reed, Furkan Korkmaz, and Robert Covington joined Harris and Maxey.
”I’d like to probably get back to [Oubre] at some point,” Nurse said. “So that’s a pretty good three-man punch out there, and then we just need another solid, probably a spacer. Someone that can shoot the ball, and of course Paul is going to be in that group. So that’s one thing we’re learning a lot from standpoints of cover, both sides of the ball, starts offensively.”
Embiid’s consistency
The reigning MVP is the NBA’s fifth-leading scorer at 29.4 points per game. He’s also one of the league’s most consistent dominant scorers. Embiid has scored at least 24 points in all five of this season’s games.
Embiid had 24 points in the season-opening loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. He followed that up with 34-, 35-, and 28-point performances before Saturday.