Norm is sensational. He seems focused, determined, and prepared. He’s the number 1 option even when Leonard comes back. Norm stepped it up.

The bench was great. TMann needs to shoot it.

Paul George had a terrific shooting night—not unexpected—but he let the fans get inside his head. This is typical of George. To me, Paul George seems like a prima donna. He’s too high maintenance.

KPJ needs to go to the G League and fix his shot.

So much drama with Embiid and now Maxey is out for weeks.

After Q1 (and the now obligatory drudgery of watching KP Jr run the point for a shift), I thought things really picked up. We hunted way more 3s and did a great job leveraging our advantage with dribble penetration and Zu’s post presence to get cleaner looks for shooters.

Over the years, I’ve been up and down on Norm, but mainly because of defense. Thought he got too few looks last year. So far this year he has not only been a complete player at both ends, but he’s been one of the best shooting guards in the league who plays with a drive, confidence and a motor that is frankly not as common as one might think. He’s been difficult to guard and yesterday was the first time I’ve seen him make that many assists. The one to the sideline for the Mann 3 was one of the highlights of the game. He averages only 1.5 assists per game over his career. He had 6 last night!

Batum, Dunn, Mann, Coffey were all very good and they used more ball movement and a dash of some small-small PnR. They’ve done a much better job the last 2 games saving Harden’s legs and he’s been giving up the ball a little more. I still think he needs to step it up in terms of hunting sideline/corner 3s and cut down the turnovers, but I think his usage over the last 2 games is more sustainable than what we saw in the first 6.

KPJ is serviceable off the ball b/c he’s a good athlete who can make a pass on the move. Him on the ball has to be wound down, however. He had fewer minutes last night. Hope that’s a trend.

The defense was, again, very good for most of the game. Did a good job staying in front of Maxey before he got hurt and living in the passing lanes. We have had a bad habit of chasing the ball instead of going to the likely rotation spot which leaves some wide open 3s, but overall this feels like one of the better defensive teams in the league.