In Game 1 of the 2023-24 season, the 76ers fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 118-117 without James Harden, the star of the show for the Sixers in this game was the brand-new free agent signing Kelly Oubre Jr. who had 27 points on 82% shooting from the field and Tyrese Maxey who had 31 points on 45% shooting with an additional 8 assists. The reigning MVP Joel Embiid had a slower start to his season like he has had in previous years, with 24 points on 43% shooting but an unusual 3/8 from the free throw line and also 7 turnovers.
The Sixers as a team in this game played pretty well but had some mistakes, they shot 19/28 from the free throw line which is in my opinion a little too many, especially considering the final score and they only lost by 1 point. They also had some very positive signs from a game 1 of the season considering that there is usually a little bit of rust, they shot 51% from the field and 46% on 3 pointers which is a good sign as they may not shoot that high of a percentage every game, but if they continue to shoot like that they could surprise most of us as because of all the drama with James Harden our expectations were not very high and if they shoot like this in a good amount of games this season they could have a very successful season even though they were unsuccessful tonight because they were facing a newly built Bucks team with new head coach Adrian Griffin and now star Damian Lillard pairing with Giannis is almost an unstoppable duo.
Speaking about Damian Lillard, he was the problem for the Sixers in this first game, having 39 points on 45% shooting while shooting 17/17 from the free throw line. The 76ers did a great job in my opinion containing the 2-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo tonight with holding him to 23 points on 10/22 shooting which for a dominant inside scorer like Giannis that is a fairly low shooting percentage. The only other player on the Bucks that played well tonight was Brook Lopez who only had 13 points but was a very efficient 5/7 from the field and 3/4 on 3 pointers.
The most controversial discussion for this game was the refereeing, Sixer fans were irate that the referees said that a shot Giannis airballed and caught which is usually a travel, but the referees said that it slipped out of his hands which eventually resulted in a big time 3 pointer from Damian Lillard. There were some other big calls that did not go the sixers way in this game like when Embiid was fouled going up for a layup and the Bucks challenged the call and it was overturned resulting in the Referees giving the Bucks the ball for .no reason and that hurt the Sixers in a big way.
Now it is time for my personal thoughts on how the 76ers played in game 1 of this NBA season-
Kelly Oubre Jr shined and had a very good first impression.
I really enjoyed the sixers playing without Harden, just seemed fun.
Even though Tyrese Maxey had 8 assists in this game, he needs to develop his passing skills as I don’t think he is good enough to be a facilitator in the offense, but if he develops that he would have all the skills to be a great point guard but for right now until he develops his passing I believe shooting guard would be his best fit but he can definitely still be a primary ball handler as his quickness is unbelievably smooth.
Jaden Springer has a huge upside, his defense in this game was incredibly shocking to me as he had an incredible block on Lillard as he has so much length, he is super impressive to watch on the defensive side of the ball and I believe he should get rotational minutes.
Nick Nurse coached this game really well in my opinion as the sixers kept on fighting and made multiple comebacks down by large deficits throughout the game and Nick Nurse made great adjustments to keep the Sixers in this game which we barely or never saw from Doc Rivers.
Tobias Harris played pretty well in my opinion as he was very efficient from the field and made some big shots but there were some possessions where he looked very lazy on defense, but I overall liked what i saw from him.
I hope you enjoyed this analysis on Game 1 for the Sixers this season, and if you missed the game hopefully this helps you understand what you missed and what your expectations should be for when you next watch the Sixers!
