👋 Good morning! Everyone work on your shrug.

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🏀 Sixers get a couple of wins: When every game that you play is close, it helps to be at your best during Winning Time.

Those are the NBA’s “clutch” statistics. If the game gets within five points in the last five minutes, it is considered a Clutch Game. As you can see, every one of the Sixers’ six wins has met those parameters. That is the most in the NBA. And the Sixers have won every single one of those close games, because as you can see, they have been nails when it has counted. Good offense, good defense.

A nice trend, for sure. I think this is gonna be a good clutch team in general, with all of the firepower available to them at the end of games and the somewhat surprising ability that they have shown to lock in defensively. But also, the law of averages should catch up to them a little bit in these close games. They will lose some of them. As the season moves along, you would like to see them mix in a blowout or three to protect against them. And to be clear, I think they will.

But we know this team is a work in progress. And wins are wins, no need to apologize for them at all. Nope, not even a little bit. And in the Sixers’ two clutch wins this weekend, what was the common denominator? The biggest shot was a VJ Edgecombe 3-pointer, followed by the 3J Goggles.

VJ is not having a great start to the season offensively. He is not only scoring less than last year, but his efficiency is down from both inside and outside the arc. That is fine, it is only six games. I am not worried about him. But VJ still can be quite helpful even when his shot is not falling, with the energy, defense and rebounding. In particular, his defensive rebounding has been awesome. VJ is averaging 6.3 defensive boards per game, which is about as good as a 6-foot-4 guard can do. A much-needed contribution on this Sixers team.

And it is uncanny what a good player that VJ is in the clutch. He could be playing like complete doo-doo for the first 45 minutes, but there he is at the end, usually making some helpful hustle/energy play. Just these past few weeks, we saw the offensive rebound against Milwaukee, the steal in the post against Pascal Siakam in Indy and also a one-on-one block against Dennis Schroder on Saturday in Charlotte.

But it is not just energy plays. For a low to mid-30s 3-point shooter, the higher leverage the shot for VJ, the more you think it is going in. And he drilled two of ‘em this weekend, to turn one-point leads into four-point leads:

LeBron, who we will get to down below, had a whole lot of fun after that second VJ 3-pointer. The old man was not playing on the second night of a back-to-back, but he had his personal shrug handshake ready for VJ (the night before, VJ did the shrug celebration with LeBron when he was playing) after the Hornets called timeout.

Speaking of LeBron handshakes, in his post-game on-court interview the night before, he did his personal handshake with Maxey while he was talking to Cassidy Hubbarth. LeBron figures out personal handshakes with literally everyone on the team, but also photographers, security guards and custodians. It is a nice ritual to make everyone feel special, but I also am blown away at how he remembers all of them. These are intricate handshakes, and he has them with like hundreds of people! Alex Coffey wrote a wonderful piece about that over at the Inquirer.

(The best quote in that piece came from Dean Wade: “I just have the simple, ‘Hire me’ handshake. I try to stay out of it because I can’t do this stuff.” 😂😂😂)

Speaking of Dean Wade, it was a helluva weekend for The Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception. If you will recall, the Sixers split that baby up this summer to acquire both Wade and Anfernee Simons. They honestly could not be any more different as players, but they both were great in Friday and Saturday’s wins:

The Sixers closed Saturday’s win in Charlotte with VJ Maxx, Jaylen Brown and The Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception. They went small. The backup center situation is still pretty dicey, and those were the best five guys available. They played great on both ends to seal the win.

I do not want to over-index too much on these second games of a back-to-back, but one nitpick that I have: The Sixers get a little too iso-heavy in the non-Embiid games. Brown and Edgecombe have not yet hit their stride offensively, and that is fine. But I think the process feels worse in those games as opposed to when everyone is playing, and they are in a legitimate feeling-out process.

But you know who makes the so-so gameplan work? Tyrese Maxey. Maxey is averaging 29.6 points per game and shooting a ridiculous 56 percent on 2s. 38 big ones in Charlotte, on the second night of a back-to-back. I have nothing else on Tyrese, except to say that he is an awesome basketball player.

As always, shoutout to Mikey Moose.

⚽ FC Cincinnati 1, Union 0: No longer The Hottest Team in Philadelphia Sports, unfortunately.

🟠⚫ Flyers 6, Utah 3: Six goals? That is like a week’s worth around here!

The big news of the day is that Travis Konecny (10 games) and Owen Tippett (6 games) returned to the lineup after lengthy absences. I think that had more an impact than Sean Couturier calling the team (*gasps*) soft, but how can we know for sure?

Konecny is probably the Flyers’ best forward, so obviously him coming back gives them a big boost. He scored a somewhat-fluky goal and set up Christian Dvorak for a much less fluky goal right from the slot. He also mucked things up, with is generally part of The Travis Konecny Experience.

Another Matvei Michkov goal, by the way. He is tied for sixth in the NHL with ten goals. Last season, he did not have double-digit goals until 35 games in. This season, he has done it in 16.

Getting embarrassed on national television twice in seven days! By bad teams, too!

Oh well, here goes nothing…

(1) I do not want to hear about the sorry state of the NFC East leaving the door open for these Eagles again. Yes, the division is bad this year. Did you see Dallas yesterday? One of the worst defenses of the last decade. But Dallas is clearly better than the Eagles. In fact, the Eagles are one of the two or three worst teams in the NFL. The broadcast’s probability model had the Birds at one percent to win the division. That seems right, when you factor in Jalen Hurts being out the rest of the season.

Look at this schedule. Outside of The Suck Bowl on December 13th, the Birds will not be favored in any of these games. My best guess is that they get two more wins and finish 4-13. I could see 5-12, because the NFL is goofy week-to-week and bad teams win weird games sometimes.

The most optimistic case, which would require massive improvements everywhere, is probably 4-5 the rest of the way for 6-11 overall. But I really hope/think Howie Roseman understands that there is no point in going 6-11 when you can go 4-13.

(2) The Eagles are perfecting The Bad Team Sequence™. They have one every week! This latest one started on 4th and 4 at the Washington 13-yard line, and it was a doozy. There were nine minutes in the fourth quarter, the Commanders led by six and the Eagles lined up to go for it:

Bad Team Stuff™. But from a dark comedy standpoint, it was the most entertaining sequence of the game.

(3) This team is not good at anything. The offensive line gives up more unblocked pressures than anyone in the entire league. Tanner McKee is probably a bad-to-average backup quarterback playing in an awful environment, the poor guy has no chance. The defensive line is quiet for long stretches of every game. The secondary commits an incredible amount of coverage busts for a Vic Fangio unit. The kick return coverage has to be the league’s worst. The coaching has been bad in all three phases.

(4) It sounds like Saquon Barkley is sticking around. And while I have laid out the reasons why it would make sense to trade Saquon, I am perfectly fine with that. Not even gonna quibble with it.

Of course, the guy with the bad hammy and back had the two offensive highlights: The wheel route, just like his first game as an Eagle in Brazil. And then the Wildcat carry, where he beat another overrated NFC East defender (Frankie Luvu, this time) to the edge even with his bad hammy for the second straight week.

Despite Nick Sirianni’s explanation, I still have no idea why a banged-up Saquon got the ball at the end of the first half.

(5) Markel Bell struggled mightily: I mentioned this part earlier this week, you want to evaluate the young offensive linemen the rest of the way. Bell and Drew Kendall, in particular.

Bell got beat multiple times by K'Lavon Chaisson, including for a strip sack of McKee. Bell has the reputation of a better run blocker than pass blocker, and we saw that in this game. For a big man, Bell really seemed to struggle anchoring in pass pro. It also does not help that McKee is one of the least mobile QBs that you will see in the modern NFL. But Bell definitely struggled.

That is fine. It is a data point as the Eagles start to evaluate their young players. Bell will continue to play the rest of the year.

(6) Speaking of those unblocked pressures, this was my favorite. This is almost avant-garde bad offensive line play. Similar to the first play against Carolina, the Eagles block one guy with three guys… while completely forgetting about another guy.

At least against Carolina, the free rusher was a blitzing linebacker. This is the defensive tackle! Easiest play of that guy’s career.

(7) While we are here, I am gonna fire off a take: Jeff Stoutland comes back as offensive line coach next year. If Howie can come back from the broom closet, Stout can return as OL coach.

I will eat some crow here. In the offseason, I was more understanding of moving on from Stout than the average Eagles fan. And as we saw last year, Stout is not a miracle worker. I do not think this would be a Top-10 offensive line or anything with Stout coaching this current group of personnel. The Eagles did not have a particularly good unit under his tutelage last year.

But if Stout was here, I also do not think that the Eagles would be giving up these comical unblocked pressures every single game. I am pretty confident of that.

(8) Going back to how bad the team is, this reminds me of the 2012 group. The Eagles went 3-1 to start that season, but it was a completely fraudulent 3-1. They won three close games (Cleveland, Baltimore, Giants) that were coin flips. And when they lost two close games (Pittsburgh, Detroit), some made the point that “they were a couple plays away from 5-1.” But they were also a couple plays away from 0-6.

This season has played out largely the same way. Sure, if Cam Jurgens does not trip Jalen Hurts against the Rams and the Eagles cover the kick against Jacksonville, they win those games. A couple of plays from 4-4. But they also needed Hurts to bail them out in Week 1 and Week 2. This team could be 0-8. 2-6 is probably about right.

Also similar to the 2012 team, I see a lot more losses in the second half of the season.

(9) The pass rush was a little better in the second half, but man, I am pretty tired of Jonathan Greenard. The lack of sacks is a major issue, but did he not have the reputation of a well-rounded defender? What was he doing on this swing pass? Get off that block, man!

And by the way, “better in the second half” does not equal good. The pass rush has been incredibly disappointing.

(10) It will be alright, y’all. I have faith that the Eagles will have a good offseason. I have faith that next year will be a much more watchable product. But yeah, these next nine games are not gonna be all that much fun.

I might write about draft prospects starting this week.

The news and notes of the day…

Jaylen Brown’s fit on Friday: I enjoyed it. STATE YOUR SOURCE. Clearly a shot at Brian Scalabrine.

I did not enjoy the rest of Brown’s weekend quite as much. He missed Friday’s game with left patellar tendinopathy (jumper's knee), but then suited up on Saturday. I do not know how much to read into that injury, as it was similar to how the Sixers handled LeBron’s SCIATICA for the first back-to-back. And then Brown finished with 16, 4 and 4 on Saturday. Good stat line, some decent moments in the second half, but I did not think JB looked particularly spry as a driver. He turned the ball over thrice and got his shot blocked a bunch.

Plenty of time for JB to figure things out, though. Meanwhile, STATE YOUR SOURCE, Scal!

Illegal foot-to-foot contact: The Sixers have also benefitted from some late-game chicanery this season, but NBA replay review increasingly leaves me rubbing my eyes and questioning if I know the rules of basketball. Jalen Brunson and VJ Edgecombe was the latest example.

🐱 Notre Dame 74, Villanova 72: Pretty bad season-opening loss for the Wildcats in “The Eternal City Showdown.” They blew a 10-point lead with ten minutes remaining. And they lost because the Fighting Irish kicked their butts on the offensive glass and in the turnover battle. And Notre Dame spends way less money on hoops, so Kevin Willard has some egg on his face here.

My guy Luigi had fairly pedestrian debut: 7 points and 5 rebounds. But he is also a young big, those guys can rapidly improve in a month or so.

The only win for Villanova this weekend? The pope casually jokes about stuff like this, and they are a major part of it. I truly never thought I would see the day…

🦁 Penn State won! And Temple lost.

This has been your local college football recap for the weekend.

Big win for the Sixers in NBA Cup Group B action on Friday #BecauseItsTheCup 🏆🏆🏆. No nights off in The Group of Death, and they took down the defending champs.

And they took down the defending champs largely because of 2023-24 NBA Cup MVP LeBron James. LeBron is very much a cup respecter, so it is no surprise that he saved his best game of the season for Cup play: 20 points (8-15 FG), 9 rebounds and 8 assists. It just means more.

LeBron sealed the game with a putback, and the crowd went nuts. I enjoyed LeBron roaming around the dunker’s spot, as he also got a layup with an intelligent cut (and a nice feed from Joel Embiid) a little earlier.

“Pace” is the word that I am gonna keep harping on with this Sixers offense. And while that can mean running for fast breaks, it mostly means how they are moving in the halfcourt. Are the cuts sharp and decisive? Even if they are going matchup-hunting, are they moving themselves and the ball with a purpose? If they do that, they are gonna be hard to guard. If not, well, you saw the third quarter against Indiana.

Against the Knicks, one matchup that the Sixers went hunting for is LeBron on Mikal Bridges in the post. That is something they did not have available to them last season. Bridges is an excellent defender, who did a wonderful job on Maxey last year in the postseason. But Mikal is skinny, too skinny in particular to handle an engaged LeBron down low #OldManStrength.

Out of their main five-out spacing — LeBron-Tyrese-Joel at the top, two shooters in the corners — the Sixers can do a lot of things. One of them is throw the ball to Joel in the middle and have Tyrese set what is called a “rip screen” for LeBron.

After this rip screen, the Sixers forced the switch. LeBron basically put Bridges, who was on Maxey initially, in the basket for a 3-point play. He shrugged, too, along with his teammates.

That play happens for two reasons:

It is a hard thing to guard, and to be clear, it is not new. LeBron made a killing when Kyrie Irving screened for him in Cleveland. And in prepping for this year, Maxey actually drew inspiration from another star-studded pairing.

But you do not need a fancy rip screen to force that switch. In the second half, the Sixers inverted it and had LeBron screen for Maxey on one side of the floor. That simple action forced the same switch. And with LeBron on Bridges in the post, he found Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and got fouled on another trip down.

“I think every game, every week my body will continue to ramp up and ramp up and get better and better,” LeBron told reporters. “That played a part.”

And in other only somewhat related news, there was a LeBron lookalike contest in Rittenhouse Square. Did that also play a part?

Two coordinators who might not have jobs by the time you read this newsletter: Mike McDaniel and Christian Parker.

Yesterday’s Dallas loss was absolutely delightful. They got incredibly outplayed by the Arizona Cardinals at home. The Cowboys got outgained by over 200 yards! I cannot believe how bad that Cowboys defense is. Our old friend Gardner Minshew came off the bench for the Cards and went 17-23 with three touchdowns. Imagine how hard that Minshew hug/punched his pops after that masterpiece.

The game went to overtime because Dallas got two lucky turnovers, Jacoby Brissett could not hit the broad side of a barn before Minshew came in, Tyler Guyton flopped harder than James Harden ever has, Dallas got an incredibly friendly whistle and Arizona’s kicker missed a game-winning extra point. All of that, and they still lost! Jerry’s reaction summed it all up.

Does that make the Eagles’ performance last week look even worse? Of course! Do I care even a little bit? Of course not! Count the (recent) rings, baby. 🏆🏆

Did you see how the Brewers won the World Series? Rally heaters.

I hope Peter Fatse is taking notes. Speaking of whom, the Phillies new hitting coach talked with the local media last week.

The Sixers’ early schedule is actually pretty brutal. They have handled it very well so far, credit to them. Tonight they have their easiest game of that early schedule: Home against Chicago, not on a back-to-back (7:30 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). The Bulls have been taken to the woodshed three times already this season. Come on, fellas, let’s not mess around here. I would like to have the football game on midway through the third quarter.

Let’s make it a good one.