Damian Lillard led the Bucks with 30 points while Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 23 and had 14 rebounds.
PHILADELPHIA — The network, the league, the fans, everybody had to be all smiles when Bucks-Sixers hit the schedule for the second night of Opening Week.
All smiles, that is, until injuries to essential players on both sides turned the game into a jack-o’-lantern’s grin, with gaps where there should have been — and presumably will be, in the coming days — All-Stars.
Joel Embiid (knee) and Paul George (knee) both were unavailable for Philadelphia, while Khris Middleton (bilateral ankle rehab) was missing for Milwaukee. It was a rough way for each team to start the new season, a tough game to use as any sort of measuring stick.
But they played it and it counted, and enough other things were going on to learn a little about both teams. Here are Five Takeaways from the Bucks’ 124-109 victory on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Center:
“The Process” gained traction in this market after the 76ers’ determined plunges to the bottom of the standings a decade ago, their strategy for improving lottery results and landing future stars. It produced mixed results, but in Embiid (and temporarily Ben Simmons) it did deliver some quality around which the franchise has strung together seven consecutive playoff appearances.
Embiid has been the centerpiece, except now the 7-footer from Cameroon is ensnarled in “The Plan.” That moniker might be a bit premature, as far as staying power in Philly, but it’s currently all the rage:
Embiid didn’t play Wednesday, he might not play in the next few games and he got shut down with most of the preseason left. He hasn’t re-injured himself, either while competing in the Paris Olympics or since, coach Nick Nurse said.
This suggests the team is heeding some sort of rehab management, cloaked enough that the NBA reportedly is looking into the matter as a potential violation of the player participation policy collectively bargained by the league and the players’ union.
It’s a tough needle to thread. “The plan is why he isn’t playing,” Nurse said.
George is suffering from a more recent injury after hyperextending his left knee in a preseason game. There’s sentiment among some Sixers fans that having guys out now is better than having them out in the spring.
It’s doubtful, though, that any of the folks who bought tickets for the opener felt that way.
A year ago, Damian Lillard showed up on Milwaukee’s doorstep to great excitement and no small amount of scrambling. The season was about to start. Then the Bucks changed coaches, firing Adrian Griffin and calling in Doc Rivers. It was herky, it was jerky, and it ended with another first-round ouster, with Giannis Antetokounmpo unavailable vs. Indiana.
The forward and the guard — both members of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team — knew they’d be facing a thrive-or-bust season. What the Bucks got in winning the opener was the perfect balance: Lillard 30 points with nine rebounds and six assists, Antetokounmpo 25, 14 and seven.
There has been a concerted effort to blend their games, and playing without Middleton for a bit longer might facilitate that. Playing together is way different from playing simultaneously.
“Things take time,” Lillard said after the victory, Milwaukee’s third in three years over Philadelphia in the opening game.
“You’ve got to be comfortable. You’ve got to have an understanding. Our time last year and this summer, being in Milwaukee a little early before camp, being able to connect, it’s been really helpful.”
If anyone can shoulder the responsibility of carrying an NBA team while two future Hall of Famers are absent, it’s Sixers star Tyrese Maxey. The slender guard made veteran James Harden expendable last season and wound up as the league’s 2024 Kia Most Improved Player and a first-time All-Star. He’s skilled enough, young enough (he turns 24 on Nov. 4), confident enough and available enough to have Embiid and George slotting in as 2A and 2B, if his arc continues.
“We know he’s got a drive game,” Nurse said, “we know he’s got a deep 3 game. Then he’s gotta use a little bit more in the middle, I think that’s one of his growth areas.”
Maxey finished with 25 points but labored for them, shooting 10-of-31 and 2-of-9 on 3s. He has always been more efficient and will get back to that. In the meantime, when he starts up the floor with the basketball, the excitement he generates — the energy, the quickness, the cuts — is not unlike what Miami Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill sparks on the football field.
The primary reason for Maxey’s ugly shooting performance was Bucks guard Gary Trent Jr., a value signing in free agency known for his defensive tenacity. Trent made life as miserable as any one man could for the Sixers guard and gives Milwaukee a much better option to assign to potent scorers than it had last season.
Trent, Taurean Prince and Delon Wright should be an upgrade, particularly on defense, rotation guys from last season such as Malik Beasley, Pat Beverley and Jae Crowder.
“It’s what I’ve been doing since I’ve been in the league,” Trent said. “I’ve been top 10 in steals and deflections the last two or three seasons.
“Our whole game plan was to make it hard on [Maxey], starting with my pressure … Just keeping second effort. A level of energy. Continuing to keep going, whether it was through illegal screens, guys sticking knees out, Kyle Lowry coming and standing in my way.”
The Bucks are a big team, too, exemplified by Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis and Antetokounmpo across the front at any given time. Nurse even chided his guys a little for daring to challenge Lopez, who did a nice job of venturing out but hurrying back. He blocked six shots.
Since Embiid is following “The Plan” and said he wasn’t likely to play both ends of any back-to-back scheduling, the issue of where those minutes go looms large. Fortunately for Philadelphia, massive Andre Drummond was an under-the-radar signing in July. Drummond, a 12-year vet who’s still only 31, has bounced around in recent seasons (this is his second stint with the Sixers).
But in the past two seasons in Chicago, backing up Nikola Vučević, Drummond averaged 17.4 points and 18.9 rebounds per 36 minutes. Those are bigger pro-rated numbers than he posted in his first eight seasons in Detroit, when he was a two-time All-Star. Drummond had 10 points and 13 boards in 25 minutes Wednesday.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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